. What kind of person is Truman?
Truman is by nature, a very cheerful, happy-go-lucky guy. It is possible this is due to the fact that he was brought up in the idyllic setting of Seahaven, and ‘taught’ to feel this way about everything. He probably is also a very organized person and is most comfortable with regular routines, and this aspect of his character shows very strongly when he never gets bored of doing the exact same thing everyday.
Another adjective to describe his character would be ‘strong’. To me, it means even when the rest of the world seems to be against you, and you are still able to believe in yourself as well as take charge of your life/destiny instead of ‘following the sheep’ and risk getting humiliated or marginalized for what you believe in, demonstrates an immense will to live for yourself. This strength is seen in Truman when he believes something is wrong with his perfect world and is determined to find out what it is, even confronting his, albeit excellently engineered, childhood fear (which is very real to him). More so, as aforementioned, that he is a man who is comfortable with routines and probably unwilling to accept change or generally uncomfortable with changes.
. Why has he been chosen as the star of a media show? Why doesn’t he know about it?
Truman, the main character in this movie, is an orphan being the first one officially adopted by an organization. He lives innocently and quite comfortably in a world created by the media while he being the main character in his own real life show, a carefully planned show that is televised day-and-night to others living in different parts of the globe. He is a tool that the media grabs attention of the audience. He is a person who totally does not know that his own life is just surrounded by actors and actresses who are designed to come and paste on fake smiles and cheat Truman so as to convince him that his world is normal and real. Even daily newspapers are specially printed to create the illusion. In the well-concealed world, he is kept from going out of the town as he became afraid of water after his father’s death and not being able to go across the water body that surrounds the town. When he wanted to take a flight, he could not get a single ticket. The bus which he then chooses to take breaks down. All possible kinds of obstacles appear when he tries to escape from the fake town. Moreover, he has actually no one to turn to since his relatives and friends will not tell him the truth about his life and so on. He becomes even more suspicious when he realizes that someone he has never met before calls out his name. Therefore, he has nowhere to get the truth.
.In what ways is he influenced by the media?
Truman lives in a world which is totally made up. Each and every thing around him are planted—the people are paid actors and actresses, the environment he lives in is a whole “recording studio” in its own. Hence, Truman’s perception of life is influenced so much by Christoff, who is the backstage narrator of The Truman Show. We can say that media is part of Truman’s life. The newspaper he reads, the television he watches, the people he talks to, they are all fake. Christoff, being the “dictator” in the show, can simply decide how Truman leads his life. Without knowing it, Truman is surrounded by what the media wants to portray to him. It’s an inherent part of his life. For example, he reads the newspaper every morning and reads magazines during work hours. Yet he does not realize that the content being fed to him is all for the purpose of creating effects for The Truman Show. The world surrounding him can be referred to as a “world within a world”, a world entirely made up by the producers of the show. The information that Truman has access to are all fictitious. However, he does not know this and believes whatever he sees.
. How does this reflect how the media influences us?
“The Truman show” is trying to send a message that no one can escape from the media today.
Truman, the main character, was watched by the whole world 24/24. Every moment of his life was shown on the televisions without him even know that. That is the intrusion of the media in the lives of celebrities, or in our own lives. Imagine one day your pictures or videos are seen on the internet and become the topics for criticisms without your notice, how would you react? That is the case of Truman, in which people looked at him as a famous actor but he did not know that he was the main character in the show.
If we look closer to the movies, there is a bigger picture that the movies want to convey. In the movies, Truman lived in a totally fake world with simulators and high-tech manipulators. The people around him, his family and his friends are all actors. Despite being taken great care in a peaceful place, he was just a caged animal, an experiment. The media is no different from the big cage that encapsulates our thoughts and ideas. It is everywhere, on televisions, on the internet, on the streets, in shopping malls and in schools. We are all facing the media every day. “The Truman show” is a warning to all of us about the effect of the media, for us to try to escape from the huge cage that it puts us in.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
The Truman Show - Introduction
Truman is on the air. Unaware.
He has been influenced by the media in many ways – his whole life has been constructed into a reality soap opera. The seemingly ordinary life that Truman leads as a stereotypical middle-aged man with a secure job and family has, in fact, been entirely created by the forces of the media. Although harbouring minor thoughts to explore the outside world, he had never really been able to be fully convinced into searching for a way to break through the cycle as he had grown up being manipulated in the isolated island known as Seahaven. This can be attributed to the fact that the media often works silently without our knowledge, and as we slowly become more absorbed by the influence of the media, it becomes a routine that is hard to break free from. Because the media presents to Truman a narrow perspective of the world, that is all that he takes in and is familiar with. Due to this influence, Truman accepts what would otherwise be out of the ordinary in reality, such as over-zealous neighbours and perfect lifestyles, and does so with no questions asked, as it has become an integral part of his life.
The media is able to work its way into making us believe in a certain way of life that we all eventually fall in step with. In the film, Sylvia warns him that “It’s all pretend”, he is confused and seems to be less believing towards it as it contradicts the principles of his life, whereby everything is ‘real’ to him. Little did Truman know that the community in which he was living in was entirely constructed by the media – the friends and relatives he trusted in were all actors, paid to act along with him. In addition, his social network had been observed by people across America and, at the end of the day, he had been totally unaware of that. Also, the scene in which Truman tries to leave for Fiji but is ‘miraculously’ stopped at various roadblocks shows the assertiveness of the media when it comes to achieving its personal goals.
The film also conveys to the audience that media influence can alter one’s perception of the world. Even in the film, various forms of marketing through media influences can be seen. Truman’s wife often promotes products, advertisements are seen on newspapers, billboards, as well as travel agency posters, exist in Seahaven. To the viewers of The Truman Show and Truman himself, the media presents itself in various forms. From television advertisements, to newspapers, and to posters in a travel agency, Truman was exposed to them all. This shows how the film is firstly trying to establish the fact that the media is indeed an inseparable aspect of Truman’s day-to-day life.
By managing to capture the interest of audiences from all walks of life, be it security guards, elderly ladies etc, we can see the power of the media. It is able to reach out and affect people and even change their lifestyles. As shown in a segment of the film, a man in the bathtub goes to the extent of placing a television set in the toilet just to be able to catch the Truman show 24/7 for every single minute so as not to miss out any details of Truman’s ‘exciting’ life. Media has such great powers that it can even affect people’s emotions thoroughly. For example, in the show, two waitresses cried upon watching Truman’s failed struggle to get out of Seahaven, their hearts reaching out for the poor guy who seemed to be writhing in pain. The media turns to certain tactics, which includes evoking sympathy or pity from the audience, in order to sustain the attention of the audience as such events that are similar to real life make it easier for viewers to relate to.
The show influences or rather shapes what we perceive as a perfect world, a perfect life. Truman grows up in a perfect environment, receives a perfect education, holds a perfect job and has a perfect family. In this way, the media acts as a benchmark and dictates what is deemed as perfect. Constant exposure to the media has influenced us to believe that the stereotypes portrayed in the media are ideal. Our perceptions of what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, are thus greatly influenced by media. For example, Truman grew up with a phobia of water, thinking that water is bad and dangerous because he saw his father “drowning” when he was young. However, this was actually a ploy set up by the production team to ensure that he would develop a fear towards the ocean, such that he would have a mental barrier preventing him leaving Seahaven. The same thing can be said about us in real life as a lot of what we pick up from an early age comes directly from the media through forms like television programmes and advertisements.
The Truman Show chronicles a man whose life is being controlled by the media for a long time and who has already lost the passion for exploring things in his life. It might only be an extra step to discover the truth, like what he had experienced during the ‘lift’ scene – in which the lift was in fact a resting place for the hired actors. It is amazing that in all his years living in Seahaven, he had never questioned anything around him, and not to say travel out of the island. Truman has been shaped into a personality which the media had exactly wanted him to possess. Even so, not all hope is lost should one be already heavily influenced by the media. The media, however powerful it may appear to be, is not a dictatorship, nor is it authoritative enough to force us into behaving in such a particular ‘ideal’ way. Despite being accustomed to the information that the media continually feeds Truman, he still managed to escape from the life the media had mapped out for him. Similarly, we have personal power in determining whether we want to break free from the influence of the media or to continue being consumed by it.
- Baorong, Bryan, Melissa, Ruisi (09S06J)
He has been influenced by the media in many ways – his whole life has been constructed into a reality soap opera. The seemingly ordinary life that Truman leads as a stereotypical middle-aged man with a secure job and family has, in fact, been entirely created by the forces of the media. Although harbouring minor thoughts to explore the outside world, he had never really been able to be fully convinced into searching for a way to break through the cycle as he had grown up being manipulated in the isolated island known as Seahaven. This can be attributed to the fact that the media often works silently without our knowledge, and as we slowly become more absorbed by the influence of the media, it becomes a routine that is hard to break free from. Because the media presents to Truman a narrow perspective of the world, that is all that he takes in and is familiar with. Due to this influence, Truman accepts what would otherwise be out of the ordinary in reality, such as over-zealous neighbours and perfect lifestyles, and does so with no questions asked, as it has become an integral part of his life.
The media is able to work its way into making us believe in a certain way of life that we all eventually fall in step with. In the film, Sylvia warns him that “It’s all pretend”, he is confused and seems to be less believing towards it as it contradicts the principles of his life, whereby everything is ‘real’ to him. Little did Truman know that the community in which he was living in was entirely constructed by the media – the friends and relatives he trusted in were all actors, paid to act along with him. In addition, his social network had been observed by people across America and, at the end of the day, he had been totally unaware of that. Also, the scene in which Truman tries to leave for Fiji but is ‘miraculously’ stopped at various roadblocks shows the assertiveness of the media when it comes to achieving its personal goals.
The film also conveys to the audience that media influence can alter one’s perception of the world. Even in the film, various forms of marketing through media influences can be seen. Truman’s wife often promotes products, advertisements are seen on newspapers, billboards, as well as travel agency posters, exist in Seahaven. To the viewers of The Truman Show and Truman himself, the media presents itself in various forms. From television advertisements, to newspapers, and to posters in a travel agency, Truman was exposed to them all. This shows how the film is firstly trying to establish the fact that the media is indeed an inseparable aspect of Truman’s day-to-day life.
By managing to capture the interest of audiences from all walks of life, be it security guards, elderly ladies etc, we can see the power of the media. It is able to reach out and affect people and even change their lifestyles. As shown in a segment of the film, a man in the bathtub goes to the extent of placing a television set in the toilet just to be able to catch the Truman show 24/7 for every single minute so as not to miss out any details of Truman’s ‘exciting’ life. Media has such great powers that it can even affect people’s emotions thoroughly. For example, in the show, two waitresses cried upon watching Truman’s failed struggle to get out of Seahaven, their hearts reaching out for the poor guy who seemed to be writhing in pain. The media turns to certain tactics, which includes evoking sympathy or pity from the audience, in order to sustain the attention of the audience as such events that are similar to real life make it easier for viewers to relate to.
The show influences or rather shapes what we perceive as a perfect world, a perfect life. Truman grows up in a perfect environment, receives a perfect education, holds a perfect job and has a perfect family. In this way, the media acts as a benchmark and dictates what is deemed as perfect. Constant exposure to the media has influenced us to believe that the stereotypes portrayed in the media are ideal. Our perceptions of what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, are thus greatly influenced by media. For example, Truman grew up with a phobia of water, thinking that water is bad and dangerous because he saw his father “drowning” when he was young. However, this was actually a ploy set up by the production team to ensure that he would develop a fear towards the ocean, such that he would have a mental barrier preventing him leaving Seahaven. The same thing can be said about us in real life as a lot of what we pick up from an early age comes directly from the media through forms like television programmes and advertisements.
The Truman Show chronicles a man whose life is being controlled by the media for a long time and who has already lost the passion for exploring things in his life. It might only be an extra step to discover the truth, like what he had experienced during the ‘lift’ scene – in which the lift was in fact a resting place for the hired actors. It is amazing that in all his years living in Seahaven, he had never questioned anything around him, and not to say travel out of the island. Truman has been shaped into a personality which the media had exactly wanted him to possess. Even so, not all hope is lost should one be already heavily influenced by the media. The media, however powerful it may appear to be, is not a dictatorship, nor is it authoritative enough to force us into behaving in such a particular ‘ideal’ way. Despite being accustomed to the information that the media continually feeds Truman, he still managed to escape from the life the media had mapped out for him. Similarly, we have personal power in determining whether we want to break free from the influence of the media or to continue being consumed by it.
- Baorong, Bryan, Melissa, Ruisi (09S06J)
The Truman Show - Seahaven
What type of place is Seahaven?
Seahaven is a constructed reality created by the executives of The Truman Show which serves to house the main character, Truman, as well as the actors around him in an attempt to capture as many viewers as possible and through this, market as many products as possible. Hence, Seahaven is portrayed as the perfect and utopian American seaside town, perhaps of the 1950s to 1960s, but in reality, it is merely a movie/film set of unbelievably enormous proportions, with 5000 cameras, simulated, human controlled weather and geography, as well as an entire town of actors and actresses all paid and supported by Christoff and his corporation.
In what ways does it fit in with ‘The American Dream’?
Although Seahaven may be portrayed to its audiences as a reality in itself, the fact is that it is still a simulated reality and the one and only one fragment of it which is truly genuine would probably be Truman himself. However, the audience does not see this fact, and hence Christoff and the executives of the Truman Show masterfully use this to their advantage by creating the perfect, vintage, though highly stereotypical vision of an American suburbia, the classic American Dream, and sell it to their audiences as a form of reality.
How all this fits in into the American Dream is in the lifestyles of the “inhabitants” of Seahaven. The “inhabitants”, or rather, the actors and actresses, all appear to be leading the perfect lives, with their perfect little children and perfect little homes in which they are constantly happy and contented with their lives and themselves, where they work hard but never have to worry about their next paycheck or where their next meal is coming from, and where they basically live a laidback lifestyle which the viewers can only dream of.
Think of a specific scene in which this is illustrated well and comment on the effect.
A specific scene which comes to mind in which this portrayal of the American Dream is illustrated well is in the first few minutes of The Truman Show where Truman walks out of his house to the perfect, master-planned community where the freshly painted houses are arranged side by side neatly with clean sidewalks and picture perfect neighbours, all of which/whom evoke a very dreamy quality about them, the kind of feeling that would make the people at home sigh and wish they were there, only they don’t know they can’t, even though it isn’t really there. This feeling is the exact kind of feeling that Christoff and his fellow executives wished to evoke within the audience and this is especially clear when he states that Seahaven is the way the world should be. The desired effect produced by this scene alone is also the same desired effect that is intentionally produced throughout most of the Truman Show whether for the benefit of the elderly couple watching at home, the waitresses watching from the diner, or even the security guards doing their daily shifts.
What messages do you think the makers of the reality TV programme are trying to communicate? Why?
The makers of The Truman Show are basically trying to communicate subliminal messages of varying degrees of intensity to their audiences.
Firstly, the makers of the Truman Show wish to market their idea of “the perfect life” to their audience. By selling The Truman Show as a “reality TV programme”, despite the fact that the only reality was Truman himself, the makers are subtly deceiving their audience and making them believe that what is shown before them is reality, and hence the ‘reality’ that they see before them is ‘the perfect life’ because everyone in the ‘reality’, including Truman appears to be happy, contented, and living the American Dream.
Secondly, through marketing their idea of “the perfect life” to their audiences, they also blatantly market their products to the audience which they think, or rather, which they want the people to think constitute “the perfect life”. Hence these people who are constantly but unknowingly bombarded by such media messages as they watch the show are heavily influenced to purchase these products, due to effective product placement on the part of the makers, in their own personal pursuit of the American Dream, of a life which they can only dream of.
Thirdly, by confining Truman to Seahaven and by quelling his urges for exploration beyond his comfort zone, the makers of The Truman Show might also be trying to communicate the idea of “happiness without asking questions” to the people watching at home, effectively consuming the freedom of not just Truman, but also the millions of viewers who are too emotionally attached to Truman to let go of the television programme as well as everything that it represents.
How does reality TV / the media in general influence us in a similar way?
Based on the aforementioned three stages in which the makers of The Truman Show attempt to influence the viewers at home, reality TV as well as the media in our own society uses the same methods and more in an attempt to influence us and bend us to their will. For example, through well thought out product placement in popular television programmes as well as MTV music videos, major corporations are effectively persuading teens and youths to purchase these products. For example, if the latest teen idol on the most popular soap opera or the most popular rap artist on his latest music video happen to showcase a particular gadget, then the general public will also want to emulate what they see on television because they are convinced that what they see on television is “right”.
However, reality TV and the media in general have impacts of differing intensities. Due to the fact that reality TV, is named as such, whether it truly depicts reality or not, people find it all the more appealing, authentic and achievable, if only because they find the lifestyles and characters portrayed there easier to emulate.
Done By: Chelsia, Yadi, Yande, Joel , Shiyang 09s06J! (:
Seahaven is a constructed reality created by the executives of The Truman Show which serves to house the main character, Truman, as well as the actors around him in an attempt to capture as many viewers as possible and through this, market as many products as possible. Hence, Seahaven is portrayed as the perfect and utopian American seaside town, perhaps of the 1950s to 1960s, but in reality, it is merely a movie/film set of unbelievably enormous proportions, with 5000 cameras, simulated, human controlled weather and geography, as well as an entire town of actors and actresses all paid and supported by Christoff and his corporation.
In what ways does it fit in with ‘The American Dream’?
Although Seahaven may be portrayed to its audiences as a reality in itself, the fact is that it is still a simulated reality and the one and only one fragment of it which is truly genuine would probably be Truman himself. However, the audience does not see this fact, and hence Christoff and the executives of the Truman Show masterfully use this to their advantage by creating the perfect, vintage, though highly stereotypical vision of an American suburbia, the classic American Dream, and sell it to their audiences as a form of reality.
How all this fits in into the American Dream is in the lifestyles of the “inhabitants” of Seahaven. The “inhabitants”, or rather, the actors and actresses, all appear to be leading the perfect lives, with their perfect little children and perfect little homes in which they are constantly happy and contented with their lives and themselves, where they work hard but never have to worry about their next paycheck or where their next meal is coming from, and where they basically live a laidback lifestyle which the viewers can only dream of.
Think of a specific scene in which this is illustrated well and comment on the effect.
A specific scene which comes to mind in which this portrayal of the American Dream is illustrated well is in the first few minutes of The Truman Show where Truman walks out of his house to the perfect, master-planned community where the freshly painted houses are arranged side by side neatly with clean sidewalks and picture perfect neighbours, all of which/whom evoke a very dreamy quality about them, the kind of feeling that would make the people at home sigh and wish they were there, only they don’t know they can’t, even though it isn’t really there. This feeling is the exact kind of feeling that Christoff and his fellow executives wished to evoke within the audience and this is especially clear when he states that Seahaven is the way the world should be. The desired effect produced by this scene alone is also the same desired effect that is intentionally produced throughout most of the Truman Show whether for the benefit of the elderly couple watching at home, the waitresses watching from the diner, or even the security guards doing their daily shifts.
What messages do you think the makers of the reality TV programme are trying to communicate? Why?
The makers of The Truman Show are basically trying to communicate subliminal messages of varying degrees of intensity to their audiences.
Firstly, the makers of the Truman Show wish to market their idea of “the perfect life” to their audience. By selling The Truman Show as a “reality TV programme”, despite the fact that the only reality was Truman himself, the makers are subtly deceiving their audience and making them believe that what is shown before them is reality, and hence the ‘reality’ that they see before them is ‘the perfect life’ because everyone in the ‘reality’, including Truman appears to be happy, contented, and living the American Dream.
Secondly, through marketing their idea of “the perfect life” to their audiences, they also blatantly market their products to the audience which they think, or rather, which they want the people to think constitute “the perfect life”. Hence these people who are constantly but unknowingly bombarded by such media messages as they watch the show are heavily influenced to purchase these products, due to effective product placement on the part of the makers, in their own personal pursuit of the American Dream, of a life which they can only dream of.
Thirdly, by confining Truman to Seahaven and by quelling his urges for exploration beyond his comfort zone, the makers of The Truman Show might also be trying to communicate the idea of “happiness without asking questions” to the people watching at home, effectively consuming the freedom of not just Truman, but also the millions of viewers who are too emotionally attached to Truman to let go of the television programme as well as everything that it represents.
How does reality TV / the media in general influence us in a similar way?
Based on the aforementioned three stages in which the makers of The Truman Show attempt to influence the viewers at home, reality TV as well as the media in our own society uses the same methods and more in an attempt to influence us and bend us to their will. For example, through well thought out product placement in popular television programmes as well as MTV music videos, major corporations are effectively persuading teens and youths to purchase these products. For example, if the latest teen idol on the most popular soap opera or the most popular rap artist on his latest music video happen to showcase a particular gadget, then the general public will also want to emulate what they see on television because they are convinced that what they see on television is “right”.
However, reality TV and the media in general have impacts of differing intensities. Due to the fact that reality TV, is named as such, whether it truly depicts reality or not, people find it all the more appealing, authentic and achievable, if only because they find the lifestyles and characters portrayed there easier to emulate.
Done By: Chelsia, Yadi, Yande, Joel , Shiyang 09s06J! (:
Sunday, March 16, 2008
How does the film The Truman Show tell the audience about the influence of the media? - Christoff
What is Christoff’s role in the programme?
How is this similar to programme makers in real life?
Think of a specific part of the film where Christoff manipulates Truman and what this tells the audience. Do you think this happens to any extent in TV in real life?
How does TV influence us?
Christoff’s role in “The Truman Show” is to control every detail in the Seahaven set, to ensure that the show runs smoothly and captures the audiences attention to bring in income, and to manipulate Truman such that he would remain in Seahaven. We can see this from the way Christoff orders his group of producers and technicians in the main control room to adjust the dimness of lights, angles of different cameras, to clean up on-set screw-ups (e.g. falling spotlight, radio channel). For example, we can see Christoff ordering his technicians to jump from “camera 1” to “camera 2” to get a better view of Truman when Truman is reunited with his father. He used the position of the camera to show Truman tearing in joy, thus producing a warm feeling among the audience. Christoff’s biggest role in the programme would be to keep the show running, by containing Truman in Seahaven by any means possible. Christoff sometimes takes the place of the people interacting with Truman and in so doing, controls what they say, or uses props to brainwash Truman to want to stay in Seahaven. One example of Christoff’s manipulation of Truman was in Truman’s childhood, where Truman announced that he aspired to be an explorer, but was put down by his teacher, who mentioned that he was “too late”, as there was “nothing left to explore”. Truman was thus discouraged by his teacher’s words and never did become an explorer. Another example was when Truman “secretly” wanted to go toFiji
US
- Yik Sin, Christian, Yu Wen, Edith, 09S07A
How is this similar to programme makers in real life?
Think of a specific part of the film where Christoff manipulates Truman and what this tells the audience. Do you think this happens to any extent in TV in real life?
How does TV influence us?
Christoff’s role in “The Truman Show” is to control every detail in the Seahaven set, to ensure that the show runs smoothly and captures the audiences attention to bring in income, and to manipulate Truman such that he would remain in Seahaven. We can see this from the way Christoff orders his group of producers and technicians in the main control room to adjust the dimness of lights, angles of different cameras, to clean up on-set screw-ups (e.g. falling spotlight, radio channel). For example, we can see Christoff ordering his technicians to jump from “camera 1” to “camera 2” to get a better view of Truman when Truman is reunited with his father. He used the position of the camera to show Truman tearing in joy, thus producing a warm feeling among the audience. Christoff’s biggest role in the programme would be to keep the show running, by containing Truman in Seahaven by any means possible. Christoff sometimes takes the place of the people interacting with Truman and in so doing, controls what they say, or uses props to brainwash Truman to want to stay in Seahaven. One example of Christoff’s manipulation of Truman was in Truman’s childhood, where Truman announced that he aspired to be an explorer, but was put down by his teacher, who mentioned that he was “too late”, as there was “nothing left to explore”. Truman was thus discouraged by his teacher’s words and never did become an explorer. Another example was when Truman “secretly” wanted to go to
- Yik Sin, Christian, Yu Wen, Edith, 09S07A
The Truman Show
“The Truman Show” is, in essence, a satire of the media’s pervasion into every single aspect of our daily lives: what we see, hear, smell, touch, and even taste. Instead of we ourselves running our lives, the media is telling us how to live, what to want, and even censoring what is unwanted, i.e. anything that would harm their profits. This is evinced in the film as everything around the main character, Truman Burbank, is planted and scripted to a point that, at times, it becomes too insanely outlandish even for us as the viewers to believe, such as the falling of a random object from the sky, and the forced advertising. The stripping away of personal privacy (mostly to the ignorance of the victim) is evinced in the film, where there are hidden cameras everywhere - even in the newsstand where Truman gets his news from - to record every little thing that Truman does. Note the irony in the before stated example. All of this is largely exaggerated in the film, but only as an attempt to make this more obvious to the viewer; in real life, the media would never want to let this be exposed to the victim.
Truman Burbank, the star of The Truman Show (only within the film) was a prematurely born baby who fit into The Truman Show’s start of production deadline, and was thus taken into the show. Everything that he does is spontaneous and unscripted, unlike everyone and everything else. This is the selling point of The Truman Show - reality TV that is unscripted - but only for the main character. This is much like the reality shows aired nowadays, such as Survivor or The Amazing Race. For the duration of these programmes, which is relatively short compared to that in The Truman Show, the main characters’ privacy disappears, they have no scripts to read off, and everything else is planned and scripted. In The Truman Show, the period of the programme is extended to over Truman Burbank’s entire life-span. He is influenced by the producers and thus the actors to think and act exactly as they want him too, reminiscent of a totalitarian government dictating how their people should think and act. When he deviates from the expected course of action, the media in the movie takes steps to prevent his departure: from the unavailability of flights out of Seahaven, the constructed town Truman resides in, to flaming pyrotechnics devised to deter him from wanting to escape. Even his “wife” and “best friend” tell him, when he wants to leave, that it is a bad idea and that he should never even attempt to act it out. This is, in essence, Truman being told what to think and do. Departing from this constructed reality, we realize that in our very own lives, the media is committing the exact same unthinkable act - dictating to us individuals what we want in our lives, and how we want to live it.
Seahaven! At first sight, it seems a friendly subrural urban town, but slightly too perfect - personally reminding me of Pleasantville, a movie where perfection is too forced. This perfection is not worked for by Truman himself, but pushed onto him by the producers and actors of The Truman Show. “The American Dream” is more or less that of gaining personal prosperity through hard work, perseverance, courage, and the likes of it. Therefore, the perfection in this little “seaside town” does not tie in with The American Dream, as Truman simply does not have to work for his own prosperity within the constructed reality that is Seahaven. Even in his romance life, this is found to be true, for his future wife unnaturally intrudes into his life even as he is eyeing another girl in his fake college. Seahaven does seem to be an ideal place for Truman Burbank to live out the American Dream, but since it is all false and phony and provided straight to him, does that not defeat the purpose of the Dream? The American Dream is of achieving prosperity, and Truman is spoon-fed prosperity.
As the programme maker of the Truman Show, Christoff's role was to plan the whole production and oversee it so that it runs the way that he wants it to. From the beginning, Truman’s entire life was dictated by him, and specific examples include Truman’s father’s suggestion to go fishing, as well as the artificial storms that were created in two cases, one to remove his father from his life, and another in an attempt to prevent his departure from Seahaven. The “loss” of his father, which he associated with the conjured storm, gave him such a traumatic experience and left a deep scar within him, manifested as his hydrophobia. The context of his acquiring of hydrophobia is to a point as to render his irrational fear unnatural. This is precisely the objective of Christoff, the director of this programme, that is, to enliven the “plot” of the Truman show, creating unexpected plot twists and events so as to break away from a routine lifestyle, thus capturing the attention of viewers spectating Truman’s life in the reality outside of Seahaven. In today’s world, programme makers are the ones in control, scripting and planning all the events for the audience’s viewing, especially in shows such as Survivor and Fear Factor. The Truman Show is merely an exaggeration of this power that the programme makers wield over the programme (which is actually blatantly implied in their title) to such an extent that even the weather’s mood can be adjusted to suit Christoff's preferences or intentions. In the Truman Show, even the “sun” in Seahaven’s constructed reality is at his command. In a similar way, the television programmes which we view for viewing’s sake have become a portal that channels the personalities of the scriptwriters and programme makers. This is largely similar to advertising in today’s world: products in the past were catered to customer’s needs, whereas today’s products are largely for luxury, so advertising is used to create a sense of need for the product. In these cases, it is the producer’s intent that is manifested. Christoff’s mention of there being “no more truth out there than what we have given you” only supplements this idea.
In the film, Christoff remarked how much we “accept the reality of the world as it is presented to us.” This quote, giving food for thought, exposes truly how vulnerable we are to the media as well as the extent of its influence over the tiniest details of our daily lives, even in the bathroom or with friends. In the instance of the film, Truman Burbank has been accepting as reality the false facts he has been presented with all his life, but he only became vaguely cognizant of it when a malfunction of his car radio allowed him to overhear an unknown individual tracking his whereabouts.. This raises a rather existentialist question: what is real? How real are the lives we lead? Are we all being spoonfed a dose of constructed reality, much like the entire human race in the 1997 film The Matrix? Be that as it may, this is not the beginning of a psychotic breakdown nor even a transcendence into a higher form of consciousness. Truman’s journey to having an epiphany gives inspiration to us in that people are inquisitive by nature, always spouting questions and seeking answers. This curiosity, fatal only to felines, is the fundamental basis of our technological advance over the centuries. Difficulty and resistance to this unquenchable thirst for truth only renders us slightly slower; in the end, we will get there, much like Truman’s long journey from Seahaven to the portal to the real world. Ultimately, intuition will allow us to vaguely discern truth from lies and when given the chance, when we are empowered, it is likely that we will the right decisions for ourselves. Thus, no matter how hard an external power tries to influence our subconscious and dictate to us how we should live our lives, this external power cannot overcome the sheer mulishness and individual survival instinct that is so firmly embedded within our hearts and minds; the media can mask it, overwhelm it, but individualism can never truly be destroyed if it truly exists.
Kersh, Serena, Jamie, Arjun from 09S06J
Truman Burbank, the star of The Truman Show (only within the film) was a prematurely born baby who fit into The Truman Show’s start of production deadline, and was thus taken into the show. Everything that he does is spontaneous and unscripted, unlike everyone and everything else. This is the selling point of The Truman Show - reality TV that is unscripted - but only for the main character. This is much like the reality shows aired nowadays, such as Survivor or The Amazing Race. For the duration of these programmes, which is relatively short compared to that in The Truman Show, the main characters’ privacy disappears, they have no scripts to read off, and everything else is planned and scripted. In The Truman Show, the period of the programme is extended to over Truman Burbank’s entire life-span. He is influenced by the producers and thus the actors to think and act exactly as they want him too, reminiscent of a totalitarian government dictating how their people should think and act. When he deviates from the expected course of action, the media in the movie takes steps to prevent his departure: from the unavailability of flights out of Seahaven, the constructed town Truman resides in, to flaming pyrotechnics devised to deter him from wanting to escape. Even his “wife” and “best friend” tell him, when he wants to leave, that it is a bad idea and that he should never even attempt to act it out. This is, in essence, Truman being told what to think and do. Departing from this constructed reality, we realize that in our very own lives, the media is committing the exact same unthinkable act - dictating to us individuals what we want in our lives, and how we want to live it.
Seahaven! At first sight, it seems a friendly subrural urban town, but slightly too perfect - personally reminding me of Pleasantville, a movie where perfection is too forced. This perfection is not worked for by Truman himself, but pushed onto him by the producers and actors of The Truman Show. “The American Dream” is more or less that of gaining personal prosperity through hard work, perseverance, courage, and the likes of it. Therefore, the perfection in this little “seaside town” does not tie in with The American Dream, as Truman simply does not have to work for his own prosperity within the constructed reality that is Seahaven. Even in his romance life, this is found to be true, for his future wife unnaturally intrudes into his life even as he is eyeing another girl in his fake college. Seahaven does seem to be an ideal place for Truman Burbank to live out the American Dream, but since it is all false and phony and provided straight to him, does that not defeat the purpose of the Dream? The American Dream is of achieving prosperity, and Truman is spoon-fed prosperity.
As the programme maker of the Truman Show, Christoff's role was to plan the whole production and oversee it so that it runs the way that he wants it to. From the beginning, Truman’s entire life was dictated by him, and specific examples include Truman’s father’s suggestion to go fishing, as well as the artificial storms that were created in two cases, one to remove his father from his life, and another in an attempt to prevent his departure from Seahaven. The “loss” of his father, which he associated with the conjured storm, gave him such a traumatic experience and left a deep scar within him, manifested as his hydrophobia. The context of his acquiring of hydrophobia is to a point as to render his irrational fear unnatural. This is precisely the objective of Christoff, the director of this programme, that is, to enliven the “plot” of the Truman show, creating unexpected plot twists and events so as to break away from a routine lifestyle, thus capturing the attention of viewers spectating Truman’s life in the reality outside of Seahaven. In today’s world, programme makers are the ones in control, scripting and planning all the events for the audience’s viewing, especially in shows such as Survivor and Fear Factor. The Truman Show is merely an exaggeration of this power that the programme makers wield over the programme (which is actually blatantly implied in their title) to such an extent that even the weather’s mood can be adjusted to suit Christoff's preferences or intentions. In the Truman Show, even the “sun” in Seahaven’s constructed reality is at his command. In a similar way, the television programmes which we view for viewing’s sake have become a portal that channels the personalities of the scriptwriters and programme makers. This is largely similar to advertising in today’s world: products in the past were catered to customer’s needs, whereas today’s products are largely for luxury, so advertising is used to create a sense of need for the product. In these cases, it is the producer’s intent that is manifested. Christoff’s mention of there being “no more truth out there than what we have given you” only supplements this idea.
In the film, Christoff remarked how much we “accept the reality of the world as it is presented to us.” This quote, giving food for thought, exposes truly how vulnerable we are to the media as well as the extent of its influence over the tiniest details of our daily lives, even in the bathroom or with friends. In the instance of the film, Truman Burbank has been accepting as reality the false facts he has been presented with all his life, but he only became vaguely cognizant of it when a malfunction of his car radio allowed him to overhear an unknown individual tracking his whereabouts.. This raises a rather existentialist question: what is real? How real are the lives we lead? Are we all being spoonfed a dose of constructed reality, much like the entire human race in the 1997 film The Matrix? Be that as it may, this is not the beginning of a psychotic breakdown nor even a transcendence into a higher form of consciousness. Truman’s journey to having an epiphany gives inspiration to us in that people are inquisitive by nature, always spouting questions and seeking answers. This curiosity, fatal only to felines, is the fundamental basis of our technological advance over the centuries. Difficulty and resistance to this unquenchable thirst for truth only renders us slightly slower; in the end, we will get there, much like Truman’s long journey from Seahaven to the portal to the real world. Ultimately, intuition will allow us to vaguely discern truth from lies and when given the chance, when we are empowered, it is likely that we will the right decisions for ourselves. Thus, no matter how hard an external power tries to influence our subconscious and dictate to us how we should live our lives, this external power cannot overcome the sheer mulishness and individual survival instinct that is so firmly embedded within our hearts and minds; the media can mask it, overwhelm it, but individualism can never truly be destroyed if it truly exists.
Kersh, Serena, Jamie, Arjun from 09S06J
The Truman Show: The Character of Truman
What kind of person is Truman?
Truman is a typical American man, who is 'living the American dream'. He stays in a normal house, leads a normal life with his wife, goes to work every day, and does pretty much the same thing every day. However, he does not know that everyone living around him are paid actors and actresses, and he is the unknowing star of the show “The Truman Show”. Truman seems to be a very popular person in Seahaven, as he greets everyone and everyone greets him. However, he does not seem to really know them in person, but only in name. He has climbed up the corporate ladder quite quickly, and seems to hold the position of a manager. Truman does not seem to love his current wife. The one woman he ever really loved is not his wife and has long since left for the other side of the world where he longs to visit but feels he can never go. Truman seems to be deceiving himself that the current life that he is leading is a perfect one, one that has no real trouble and is the best for him. However, he always has a niggling want to go to the other side of the world, to get away from his monotonous life, to experience something new. He even seems to want to go find his ex-girlfriend, as seen in a scene where he tells his close friend that he wants to go to Fiji, the very place that his ex-girlfriend is at.
Why has he been chosen as the star of a media show? Why doesn't he know about it?
Truman was chosen because he happened to be born at the time of the production. Moreover, he was an unwanted baby and that made it easier for the producers of the show to use him, as he would not have any family members that they would have to account to, nor did he have any knowledge of what a normal life should be like. Hence, they would have been able to create a life around him without him knowing anything about it. Also, the producers felt that by doing so, they were adopting Truman and giving him a chance to lead a normal life that he would not have been able to had he been left unwanted.
Truman is unaware that his whole life is actually a show because he has been living this life ever since he was a baby, and everything seems to be normal. All the people around him – his family, friends, neighbours and even strangers – are all paid actors, and all the events that have happened to him are planned. Hence, his whole life seems to him to be a typical and routine one, so he does not suspect anything. The cameras that are positioned around Seahaven are also hidden so he is unaware that he is being filmed.
In what ways is he influenced by the media?
Unknowingly, Truman's whole life is influenced by the media because everyone and everything around him is part of a television programme. The actors in Seahaven are made to say or do certain things so as to affect Truman's decisions. An example of this was when Truman decided to book a flight to Fiji, and the producers placed prominent posters about buying travel insurance in case of terrorist attacks, diseases etc, and warning travelers of lightning strikes during flights so as to dissuade him. Also, Truman is unknowingly forced to stand in certain positions so that the hidden cameras are able to capture advertisements which will be conveniently broadcasted to the audience. In addition, he is also made to endorse certain products that his family and friends recommend, like the “Chef's Pal” that his wife introduced to him.
Truman is influenced by the actors and events happening around him that the life he is leading is a real one – that he has a real family, real friends and is living in a real town. However, what he does not know is that his actions are consciously planned by the production team, and everything that is said by the people around him is directed by the producers. Drawing a parallel to real life, just like how Truman is made to believe that he is living a normal life, the media has the power to influence our decisions and make us believe that what we see is reality.
Think of a specific scene in which this is illustrated well and comment on the effect.
A specific example of how Truman was influenced by the media (ie. the producers and actors of the Truman Show) was when he witnessed his father's “death”. The production team staged his father’s death at sea so that Truman would develop a fear of water, and this would then keep him from leaving Seahaven as he would have to cross a bridge over water to leave the town. This incident illustrates the power of the producers over Truman’s life, and how they made use of this power to make him believe what he saw was real, and to control his actions, to ensure that he would not leave Seahaven. The producers took advantage of the relationship between Truman and his “father” and Truman's experience of losing his father at sea to influence Truman to develop a phobia for water.
How does this reflect how the media influences us?
This shows us that the media exerts a great amount of influence on us. The media is around us all the time, and is constantly feeding us information and images that we subconsciously take in. We must, however, be conscious of the fact that not all this information is real and be able to decide what to believe and what not to believe. The above example in the Truman Show shows us how the media is able to manipulate our thoughts and actions without us knowing it. The media conjures in our minds an idea of reality and what our lives should be like, and most of us believe it. Like Truman, who eventually discovers that his whole life was not real and merely a creation of the media, we must equip ourselves with media literacy skills so that we may be able to tell real life from reel life, and not lead our lives the way the media dictates us to.
Zoe, Joel, Yingxin, Cheryl, Ben Khoo
09S06H
Truman is a typical American man, who is 'living the American dream'. He stays in a normal house, leads a normal life with his wife, goes to work every day, and does pretty much the same thing every day. However, he does not know that everyone living around him are paid actors and actresses, and he is the unknowing star of the show “The Truman Show”. Truman seems to be a very popular person in Seahaven, as he greets everyone and everyone greets him. However, he does not seem to really know them in person, but only in name. He has climbed up the corporate ladder quite quickly, and seems to hold the position of a manager. Truman does not seem to love his current wife. The one woman he ever really loved is not his wife and has long since left for the other side of the world where he longs to visit but feels he can never go. Truman seems to be deceiving himself that the current life that he is leading is a perfect one, one that has no real trouble and is the best for him. However, he always has a niggling want to go to the other side of the world, to get away from his monotonous life, to experience something new. He even seems to want to go find his ex-girlfriend, as seen in a scene where he tells his close friend that he wants to go to Fiji, the very place that his ex-girlfriend is at.
Why has he been chosen as the star of a media show? Why doesn't he know about it?
Truman was chosen because he happened to be born at the time of the production. Moreover, he was an unwanted baby and that made it easier for the producers of the show to use him, as he would not have any family members that they would have to account to, nor did he have any knowledge of what a normal life should be like. Hence, they would have been able to create a life around him without him knowing anything about it. Also, the producers felt that by doing so, they were adopting Truman and giving him a chance to lead a normal life that he would not have been able to had he been left unwanted.
Truman is unaware that his whole life is actually a show because he has been living this life ever since he was a baby, and everything seems to be normal. All the people around him – his family, friends, neighbours and even strangers – are all paid actors, and all the events that have happened to him are planned. Hence, his whole life seems to him to be a typical and routine one, so he does not suspect anything. The cameras that are positioned around Seahaven are also hidden so he is unaware that he is being filmed.
In what ways is he influenced by the media?
Unknowingly, Truman's whole life is influenced by the media because everyone and everything around him is part of a television programme. The actors in Seahaven are made to say or do certain things so as to affect Truman's decisions. An example of this was when Truman decided to book a flight to Fiji, and the producers placed prominent posters about buying travel insurance in case of terrorist attacks, diseases etc, and warning travelers of lightning strikes during flights so as to dissuade him. Also, Truman is unknowingly forced to stand in certain positions so that the hidden cameras are able to capture advertisements which will be conveniently broadcasted to the audience. In addition, he is also made to endorse certain products that his family and friends recommend, like the “Chef's Pal” that his wife introduced to him.
Truman is influenced by the actors and events happening around him that the life he is leading is a real one – that he has a real family, real friends and is living in a real town. However, what he does not know is that his actions are consciously planned by the production team, and everything that is said by the people around him is directed by the producers. Drawing a parallel to real life, just like how Truman is made to believe that he is living a normal life, the media has the power to influence our decisions and make us believe that what we see is reality.
Think of a specific scene in which this is illustrated well and comment on the effect.
A specific example of how Truman was influenced by the media (ie. the producers and actors of the Truman Show) was when he witnessed his father's “death”. The production team staged his father’s death at sea so that Truman would develop a fear of water, and this would then keep him from leaving Seahaven as he would have to cross a bridge over water to leave the town. This incident illustrates the power of the producers over Truman’s life, and how they made use of this power to make him believe what he saw was real, and to control his actions, to ensure that he would not leave Seahaven. The producers took advantage of the relationship between Truman and his “father” and Truman's experience of losing his father at sea to influence Truman to develop a phobia for water.
How does this reflect how the media influences us?
This shows us that the media exerts a great amount of influence on us. The media is around us all the time, and is constantly feeding us information and images that we subconsciously take in. We must, however, be conscious of the fact that not all this information is real and be able to decide what to believe and what not to believe. The above example in the Truman Show shows us how the media is able to manipulate our thoughts and actions without us knowing it. The media conjures in our minds an idea of reality and what our lives should be like, and most of us believe it. Like Truman, who eventually discovers that his whole life was not real and merely a creation of the media, we must equip ourselves with media literacy skills so that we may be able to tell real life from reel life, and not lead our lives the way the media dictates us to.
Zoe, Joel, Yingxin, Cheryl, Ben Khoo
09S06H
the Truman Show: How the character of Truman tells us about the influence of the media
Truman Burbank, abandoned at birth, was chosen out of a pool of unwanted babies who were all coincidentally born around the time production for the show began. As a sort of ‘charity case’, Truman is sent to the media constructed universe of Seahaven, where he grows up to a ‘normal’ suburban life as the clueless star of the eponymous popular and long-running reality TV show. Despite making him a *star* and providing him with a seemingly wonderful life, the media company had actually just taken advantage of an innocent, powerless against them to say ‘No’, and moulded his life into something they required in order to make the most out of taking advantage of him.
Through the character of Truman and how he lives and interacts with people, The Truman Show tells us as an audience, about the pervasive nature of the media on our lives, and the ways we can unwittingly be controlled by it should we not possess a certain level of media literacy.
A happy-go-lucky optimist by nature, Truman lived and breathed saccharine clichés (Very Pleasantville-esque clothing, tending to his own garden plot in his spare time, generally being very handy around the house) all his life in the clean-cut (and highly manufactured) town of Seahaven. Quietly being fed what’s construed as acceptable human behaviour (Like excitedly greeting his picture perfect neighbours at the other side of his picture perfect street every single day without fail), Truman happily soaked it in for years until he went against the story line, and fell in love with a supporting cast member. We have to examine how much of his life is dominated by the amount of product placements shown to him, the way he was brought up (as dictated by the show producers) and which actions taken by him are truly his own, and not caused by other influences. Truman is by and large a strong person if only he sets his mind to it (Like how he ignores all the information he’s being fed in a single minded attempt to escape out of Seahaven and see the world outside, and how he overcomes his fear of the water during the climax of the movie). We can see that major events have a tendency to leave long-lasting impacts on the way Truman lives, and how he views the world. Because of the trauma he suffered from witnessing the staged “death” of his so-called father by drowning, Truman is so afraid to go across the water that he would rather walk away than go across it to get an assignment done. One mention of “Fiji” from Sylvia (the woman he’s madly in love with) is enough to warrant Truman to harbour dreams of going to this exotic locale in order to find her. Occurrences that shake up his normal, day-to-day humdrum existence are so few and far between that he winds up obsessive about them. (Buying magazine after magazine in order to try and piece together the features of Sylvia to try to remember her by) But at the same time, he still finds it in him to share all these hopes, dreams and fears with the best friend he trusts explicitly.
It is very easy to label Truman as the ‘everyman’ and cheer him on. Outwardly he’s the ideal gentleman with a cushy desk job and the same set of financial woes (mortgages, car loans) as your average Joe, but he still has his own oddities and imperfections that make him seem realistic in his courageous fight for the right to live with the truth. The media influences us through showcasing such idealism in a respectful and nicely packaged manner to appeal to our sense of justice and empathy: People root for Truman, because let’s face it; he’s the one we’re supposed to feel for anyway.
Truman is kept utterly in the dark so successfully, because of the circumstances that he lives in. He doesn’t seem to be able to access radio channels that tell him anything about life outside Seahaven, never appears to have watched any television programmes that show him the world, etc. This shows that the type of media that we are exposed to does play an important role. The propagandist nature of everything in Seahaven paints such a glorified picture of it as compared to the relative media blackout on places outside: There’s no sense of going out since it’s all so messed up. Stay inside! By keeping him locked up within the fishbowl studio, Truman is unable to access any clues that might lead him to discover that his life is actually a sham. All the paid actors don’t clue him in either, or if they do, they’re quickly terminated by the show, and the normalcy of daily life creeps back in to gloss over the incident and bring Truman back to ‘reality’. If we are constantly exposed to so many messages, instead of just one, it makes us all the more able to pick and choose (discernment) what we want to live our life by. But if we’re constantly just fed the same old thing over and over, we won’t stop and notice if there’s anything wrong with blindly following that. Truman doesn’t realize the impact of Sylvia’s words “It’s all pretend” until so much later, because he has no reason to believe it.
The ways in which Truman is influenced by the media seems humourous to us because of how blatantly he’s given instructions by it: The voice on the radio gives clear directions as to how Truman is supposed to drive, his wife, mother & best friend shamelessly plug products through advertisement placements to an audience through him etc. But in truth, the media does that to us too, albeit more commonly using subtler methods. The role of glorified personalities in selling us goods, services, causes and ideas is really nothing new. Neither is the use of constant rephrasing or repackaging the same item, in order to achieve a greater appeal or impact on the consumer.
Much like Truman, we’re essentially living inside a world where the media is everywhere, even within our public toilets. While they might not be watching our every move (we hope), they’re still tracking us through demographics, and trying to shape the way we think and feel in order to market their goods to us. The media can influence us through many different ways: through print mediums (like Truman’s airplane warning poster, and our WANTED TERRORIST posters), through the people we trust and listen to (like our peers. In Truman’s case his six-pack wielding best friend, plus his wife AND his mother), through messages being broadcast to us (commercials, radio jingles, Drive Safely, Be Courteous!) etc. It’s really up to us what we choose to believe, and what we should filter away as trash.
By: Abby Kang, Zhefei, Timothy & Justin (09S07A)
The Truman Show Reflection - Seahaven
• What type of place is Seahaven?
Seahaven is an artificial paradise created by Christoff to serve as the set of the Truman Show, a reality TV programme in which everyone but Truman is a paid actor, with only Truman unaware that he has lived in a TV set all his life. Being a seaside town, it ensures Truman would never want to leave due to his fear of water. On the surface, everything is bright and cheerful; no one seems to ever worry about anything, it is quaint, quiet, untouched. It is an island utopia for Truman alone in the sense that to him, everyone is perpetually happy and there are virtually no problems in his life. In other words, Seahaven is perfect, as labelled in the movie, “The best place on Earth”.
• In what ways does it fit in with ‘The American Dream’?
It fits in with “The American Dream” because it provides Truman with all the material needs required to be ‘living the American Dream’: a loyal wife, a stable job, a large house with a garden, a car, etc. It is a depiction of life in the American Dream, the life that everyone strives for in order to attain happiness. The irony is that Truman himself is not satisfied with this ‘American Dream’ that he is living out, constantly yearning to leave the town.
Also, this perfect life is characterized by numerous product placements, like focus on the products that Truman uses, which in a way contributed to his “perfect “life. In a way, the movie tries to sway the opinion of the “viewers” of the Truman Show that to attain this perfect life, where everything is peaceful and nice, they should try to live like how people in Seahaven, so people would in an attempt to achieve and attain this perfect world, as depicted by Seahaven, to achieve “The American Dream”, so product placement in this show would strongly convince these viewers to actually try these products, under the impression that it is the best product.
• Think of a specific scene in which this is illustrated well and comment on the effect.
This is clearly seen through Truman’s wife, Meryl’s constant blatant advertising of products she uses, like how she advertises the lawnmower, the coffee she is going to make, or even the new all-in-one kitchen tool she uses. This form of advertising is really blatant, but by advertising and commenting on all the products merits, and the effect on Truman’s life after using these products, being a “perfect” life, it does have an effect on viewers where they would be convinced to try and buy these products, in order to actually achieve a better improved life, yearning for the “perfect” life, under the impression that through using these products, they can achieve Truman’s “perfect” life such as that in Seahaven where everything is virtually perfect. Thus, through this advertising in the Truman Show, it can help increase sales and thus, profits for these product companies and advertisers.
• What messages do you think the makers of the reality TV programme are trying to communicate? Why?
The reality TV programmes are trying appeal to the viewers emotionally. The Truman show has been going on for almost 30 years. Viewers have watched him since the day he was born. Thus, they have grown attached to him and the show. People are interested to see how this young man has actually lived in a massive studio for all his life. The emphasis of the show is on intense emotionality, exaggeration and sensationalism. This is how the producers of the show are able to secure its viewership. Such a programme is typically driven by three common elements: profits, education and entertainment. The main aim of producing such a show is obvious, which is to make the largest profits out of it. After all, it is a commercialized world we are living in.
The makers of the reality show are trying to make the audience realize how the media have been a great part of their lives and how they may have been influenced by it unconsciously. This may perhaps make the viewers more aware of these advertising methods and not be easily persuaded to purchase products.
• How does reality TV / the media in general influence us in a similar way?
Reality TV is said to be reality but in actual fact, some of them are planned. In some shows, the participants are coached to act in certain ways by off-screen handlers. The events on screen are sometimes manipulated through editing and other post-production techniques. Types of reality TV include game shows, talk show or even documentaries. These TV shows gives the public misconceptions that the events are factual. In this way, reality is blurred between what is real and what is false.
Some shows have faced speculation that the participants themselves are involved in fakery, acting out storylines that have been planned in advance by producers. It is a misnomer, a purportedly unscripted drama rather than a show reflecting real life scenarios. These Reality TV programmes affect and change the perceptions of the public in terms of interpersonal relations, comprising "sexuality", "courtship", "love" and "marriage". All these ideas are made to become popular fallacies.
Besides, Reality TV deals at times, deals with issues which capitalize on and celebrate the human race’s ‘worst qualities’, like greed, selfishness and voyeurism etc. It has been identified that reality TV programmes have a huge potential to develop “cult followings”. This is because such real life programmes that involve the ordinary people will leave a deeper impression on viewers as compared to dramas. Ordinary folks may think that the reality shows are telling a story similar to their own lives and thus, appeal to them emotionally.
We may develop the mindset that “since this is reality TV, this is the way we should live.” And to feed this mindset, we might tune in to the programme more, thus, reality TV will have a great impact on our lives. We might find it even more feasible to achieve similar lifestyles to what they see in reality TV shows, and thus be even more influenced by reality TV shows and their content, making us more susceptible to product placement and advertisements, and more influenced by the mindsets and ideas the show portrays, largely shaping how we think, how we live and what we do in our daily lives, we are thus in a way controlled by the media as a result.
Done by: Abigail Ho, Ewen, Jonathan, Xue Qian, Ying Ying 09S07A
The role of Christoff in The Truman Show
Christoff is an allegory of programme makers to a large extent. Truman here is parallel to the audience in real life.
In The Truman Show, Christoff is omnipotent. Behind the scene, he shapes and manipulates Truman’s life since birth. Christoff has absolute control over everything in Truman’s life, from the existence of the friends and relatives around him, the weather in Seahaven, to even the death of his father. Everything in the artificial dome was carefully planned, controlled and developed by Christoff to make it seem like reality to Truman.
At the start of the show, Truman recounts a scene in which he was boating with his father. They encountered ferocious wind when they were out at sea, and as a result, Truman's father lost his balance and fell into the sea, and never seen again. Witnessing the death of his father at such a young age caused Truman much trauma and he turned hydrophobic from that incident onwards. As a result, Truman did not step out of Seahaven again.
As mentioned earlier, all these are just events meticulously planned and prepared by Christoff. The sea was just a prop and the strong winds and turbulent waters were all created by Christoff. This was to induce a sense of fear towards large water bodies into Truman to prevent him from leaving Seahaven. Truman remaining in Seahaven is of utmost importance to Christoff as he had to contain Truman in the artificial world he created to ensure the continual of his reality show.
Programme makers work in a similar way. As the name of their role suggests, they have an extensive control over the media. Contents of the programmes are carefully crafted in the way which would maximise their programme’s ratings and corporation’s economic benefits. Appealing to the viewer’s demand, the programmes create an emotional experience that looks like reality, which is similar to that of Christoff creating a ‘reality’ in Truman’s world. However, in both cases, it is clear that this ‘reality’ is not real after all, since it is made up by a person or a group of programme makers, who has the selective power over the reality. Hence, the reality that we often perceive in programmes is not the complete reality of the world. For example, in the reality show The Big Brother, scenes displaying the good side of the protagonist are often cut, as it is not what the viewers would want to perceive of the ‘bad character’. Scene cutting and plot cutting are often done not to best represent reality, but to best represent the programme’s commercial interest.
In the film, Truman represents the consumers or the 'ordinary' people, while Christoff represents the companies all over the globe and the artificial world in which Truman lives in as the media. Through a crossover reference, this specific part of the film is trying to inform its audience that they, as the ordinary people in the society, are being manipulated by the companies and corporations. The corporations, fueled by their desire to maximize profits, would do whatever they can to influence the public, to sway their thoughts towards their cause. To achieve this, they would use the media as a medium to convey their messages, similar to how Christoff uses his artificial world to manipulate Truman. Truman has no idea that he is being manipulated for a long time and hence Christoff could do anything he can so that Truman would bend to his will. Similarly, the ordinary people are being twisted around the fingers of the corporations without them having any faintest idea of it. Hence, the film is trying to tell the audience to break out of the grip of the corporations and companies.
However, there is also a stark difference between Christoff and programme makers in real life. In The Truman Show, Christoff is omnipotent. He dictates over Truman’s life. Initially, Truman is not even aware that he is under the manipulation of Christoff until he reaches the end of the dome-shaped studio, let alone having any say in Christoff’s decisions over The Truman Show. Programme makers, however, do not have as great control over the audience as compared to Christoff. Audience do have a certain degree of media literacy, demand and expectations of the media and their programmes. Their desire for reality shows for example, is the driving force behind programme makers to craft their programmes in the way which best suit the audience demand. While programme makers strive to satisfy the audience demand in order to boost their profits, their programmes also influence the audience demand.
The Truman Show is a mirror image of how TV influences the audience in the world. The action of the audience crowding around the TV gawking at the private life of Truman is an example of how TV has influenced the minds of many. TV has flared up the curiosity of people to peek into the lives of others. Christoff is merely someone who can grasp the curiosity and emotional needs of the audience to produce a programme which reflects human beings in real life. When the audience stare at every action made by Truman, they are actually gawping at themselves.
Ironically, TV has always been a platform for audience to escape the reality of the world. People watch TV to relive their daily stress and get away from the world they live in. Yet, reality shows and drama still dictate the TV world. Audience do not bat an eyelid watching the real world from the screen of a tiny box. What do TV have such a huge influence on the audience? The answer lies in the vanity of human beings. TV is more than just a platform for audience to escape the reality; it is a stage of comparison for human beings. The audience always want to compare their own quality of life to that of those on TV shows. In The Truman Show, Christoff creates a scenario which allows the audience to sympathize with Truman and take pride in their own lives. Ultimately, the ‘reality’ is merely another brand used by Christoff to promote The Truman Show to the audience by feeding their vanity.
At the end of the day, The Truman Show is just another movie produced by Paramount Pictures to suit the needs of the audience.
Done By: Guo Ji Wei, Ho Weiliang, Ng Chen Xuan, Ng Yong Sheng of 09S06J
In The Truman Show, Christoff is omnipotent. Behind the scene, he shapes and manipulates Truman’s life since birth. Christoff has absolute control over everything in Truman’s life, from the existence of the friends and relatives around him, the weather in Seahaven, to even the death of his father. Everything in the artificial dome was carefully planned, controlled and developed by Christoff to make it seem like reality to Truman.
At the start of the show, Truman recounts a scene in which he was boating with his father. They encountered ferocious wind when they were out at sea, and as a result, Truman's father lost his balance and fell into the sea, and never seen again. Witnessing the death of his father at such a young age caused Truman much trauma and he turned hydrophobic from that incident onwards. As a result, Truman did not step out of Seahaven again.
As mentioned earlier, all these are just events meticulously planned and prepared by Christoff. The sea was just a prop and the strong winds and turbulent waters were all created by Christoff. This was to induce a sense of fear towards large water bodies into Truman to prevent him from leaving Seahaven. Truman remaining in Seahaven is of utmost importance to Christoff as he had to contain Truman in the artificial world he created to ensure the continual of his reality show.
Programme makers work in a similar way. As the name of their role suggests, they have an extensive control over the media. Contents of the programmes are carefully crafted in the way which would maximise their programme’s ratings and corporation’s economic benefits. Appealing to the viewer’s demand, the programmes create an emotional experience that looks like reality, which is similar to that of Christoff creating a ‘reality’ in Truman’s world. However, in both cases, it is clear that this ‘reality’ is not real after all, since it is made up by a person or a group of programme makers, who has the selective power over the reality. Hence, the reality that we often perceive in programmes is not the complete reality of the world. For example, in the reality show The Big Brother, scenes displaying the good side of the protagonist are often cut, as it is not what the viewers would want to perceive of the ‘bad character’. Scene cutting and plot cutting are often done not to best represent reality, but to best represent the programme’s commercial interest.
In the film, Truman represents the consumers or the 'ordinary' people, while Christoff represents the companies all over the globe and the artificial world in which Truman lives in as the media. Through a crossover reference, this specific part of the film is trying to inform its audience that they, as the ordinary people in the society, are being manipulated by the companies and corporations. The corporations, fueled by their desire to maximize profits, would do whatever they can to influence the public, to sway their thoughts towards their cause. To achieve this, they would use the media as a medium to convey their messages, similar to how Christoff uses his artificial world to manipulate Truman. Truman has no idea that he is being manipulated for a long time and hence Christoff could do anything he can so that Truman would bend to his will. Similarly, the ordinary people are being twisted around the fingers of the corporations without them having any faintest idea of it. Hence, the film is trying to tell the audience to break out of the grip of the corporations and companies.
However, there is also a stark difference between Christoff and programme makers in real life. In The Truman Show, Christoff is omnipotent. He dictates over Truman’s life. Initially, Truman is not even aware that he is under the manipulation of Christoff until he reaches the end of the dome-shaped studio, let alone having any say in Christoff’s decisions over The Truman Show. Programme makers, however, do not have as great control over the audience as compared to Christoff. Audience do have a certain degree of media literacy, demand and expectations of the media and their programmes. Their desire for reality shows for example, is the driving force behind programme makers to craft their programmes in the way which best suit the audience demand. While programme makers strive to satisfy the audience demand in order to boost their profits, their programmes also influence the audience demand.
The Truman Show is a mirror image of how TV influences the audience in the world. The action of the audience crowding around the TV gawking at the private life of Truman is an example of how TV has influenced the minds of many. TV has flared up the curiosity of people to peek into the lives of others. Christoff is merely someone who can grasp the curiosity and emotional needs of the audience to produce a programme which reflects human beings in real life. When the audience stare at every action made by Truman, they are actually gawping at themselves.
Ironically, TV has always been a platform for audience to escape the reality of the world. People watch TV to relive their daily stress and get away from the world they live in. Yet, reality shows and drama still dictate the TV world. Audience do not bat an eyelid watching the real world from the screen of a tiny box. What do TV have such a huge influence on the audience? The answer lies in the vanity of human beings. TV is more than just a platform for audience to escape the reality; it is a stage of comparison for human beings. The audience always want to compare their own quality of life to that of those on TV shows. In The Truman Show, Christoff creates a scenario which allows the audience to sympathize with Truman and take pride in their own lives. Ultimately, the ‘reality’ is merely another brand used by Christoff to promote The Truman Show to the audience by feeding their vanity.
At the end of the day, The Truman Show is just another movie produced by Paramount Pictures to suit the needs of the audience.
Done By: Guo Ji Wei, Ho Weiliang, Ng Chen Xuan, Ng Yong Sheng of 09S06J
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The Truman Show - Seahaven
Seahaven is a modern version of paradise, a hypothetical setting in which everything is somewhat perfect. It is portrayed as constructed reality, where everything is synthesized to be just right. However, it is important to note that things do not always work out nicely in Seahaven. From time to time, mishaps ranging from minor incidents to natural disasters do strike this little seaside town. For example, the lack of tickets at the travel agents office, the bus break-down, inexplicable traffic jams, the hurricane storm, and the boating accident leading to the death of Truman’s father. These events, as we know, have all been carefully staged by the makers of the reality TV programme in order to achieve certain objectives. (Most notably to induce hydrophobia in Truman thereby hindering his ability to escape) Seahaven, therefore, is not just a peaceful, master-planned community, but also a highly useful platform for the manipulation and control of Truman’s life.
The general ideology behind the American Dream includes the ability to succeed based purely on merit while not hindered by social class, status or position. It implies that every citizen has the right to this freedom; the statement equating hard work to achievement holds.
With this in mind we feel that Seahaven can be considered a satire on the American Dream. It IS the American Dream unblemished - contrary to reality, it is safe and heavily protected from outside influences. It has no crime because there is no real socio-economic disparity and no racial discrimination because most of the citizens are white, and there are no conflicts because of the lack of cultural diversity. It is set in the 1950s, which was seen to be a prosperous time in American history. In the show, everyone – that is, the cast – goes about their daily routine with a big, fake smile on their face. This gives the impression that life is good there, but the question is whether it is too good to be true. Is the director trying to inspire with the American Dream in its purest form or is he instead mocking the impossibility of the situation?
In our opinion, the makers of the reality TV programme are trying to communicate to us that everything may not be what they appear to be, and that our views and perceptions of the world may have been influenced by the relentless bombardment of messages by the media. The makers are trying to warn us not to believe in everything we see or hear, as like with Truman’s world, our media landscape is filled with news, politics, advertising and messages that may be nothing more that theatrical illusions aimed at distorting our version of reality and our perceptions.
At various stages in the movie, the director, Christof, employs product placement by making use of Marion, Truman’s wife to advertise various products of which the corporations sponsor the Truman show. This not-so-subtle insertion of product advertising is an exaggeration of the subtler product placements that we see and register subconsciously in real life. This shows that the media dictates what is popular and trendy for us, creating the innate desire in us for the products that they are selling, whether it be through shows, television or the radio.
Another message the makers may be trying to convey to us is, in the present world, privacy is had to get. The lives of many celebrities today, much like Truman’s, are striped to the barest, monitored constantly by tabloids, for us the readers to take a peep at their lives, regardless they like it or not. Like Truman, hidden cameras follow them around, and so similar to Truman, most of the time they are unaware that their actions are caught in the camera, for all to see.
Also, the makers may be trying to communicate that the American Dream is not as perfect as it may be, and that not everyone and everything can be trusted. There is also the possibility that things may break down at any point in time, thus showing that a perfect world is impossible, and that we cannot be sheltered from all the dangers we may possibly face in life. In depicting the breaking down of the staged set of Seahaven, as evident from the falling stage props and the malfunctioning radio, the makers dismiss the American Dream as nothing more than a castle in the air.
Similarly, reality TV and the media create in us the tendency to confuse reality and media-presented fiction. We tend to believe what is written in advertisements and presented to us by celebrities, even if it goes against our common sense. These pervasive messages are abundant in our everyday life, so much so that it becomes part of our reality.
It also goes to show that what we see through the media and what is conceived as ‘reality’, are actually indistinguishable. Many reality shows, such as The Truman Show, try to present to the audience the lives of others, unedited as they claim, but how much of those are actually scripted, and how much freedom are given to the leads of the show? Are we really looking at someone else’s life or are we subconsciously taking in the hidden messages that are intentionally placed by an ‘invisible hand’?
As Truman tries to escape the perfect world of Seahaven, he is faced with many obstacles and difficulties. Similarly, we are ensconced in a world where advertising and media influence is ubiquitous, thus making it difficult for us to discern right from wrong and make choices for ourselves.
Ming Mei, Yuan Ning, Chris Fang, Bertrand Na, Yi Xin
09SO6H
The general ideology behind the American Dream includes the ability to succeed based purely on merit while not hindered by social class, status or position. It implies that every citizen has the right to this freedom; the statement equating hard work to achievement holds.
With this in mind we feel that Seahaven can be considered a satire on the American Dream. It IS the American Dream unblemished - contrary to reality, it is safe and heavily protected from outside influences. It has no crime because there is no real socio-economic disparity and no racial discrimination because most of the citizens are white, and there are no conflicts because of the lack of cultural diversity. It is set in the 1950s, which was seen to be a prosperous time in American history. In the show, everyone – that is, the cast – goes about their daily routine with a big, fake smile on their face. This gives the impression that life is good there, but the question is whether it is too good to be true. Is the director trying to inspire with the American Dream in its purest form or is he instead mocking the impossibility of the situation?
In our opinion, the makers of the reality TV programme are trying to communicate to us that everything may not be what they appear to be, and that our views and perceptions of the world may have been influenced by the relentless bombardment of messages by the media. The makers are trying to warn us not to believe in everything we see or hear, as like with Truman’s world, our media landscape is filled with news, politics, advertising and messages that may be nothing more that theatrical illusions aimed at distorting our version of reality and our perceptions.
At various stages in the movie, the director, Christof, employs product placement by making use of Marion, Truman’s wife to advertise various products of which the corporations sponsor the Truman show. This not-so-subtle insertion of product advertising is an exaggeration of the subtler product placements that we see and register subconsciously in real life. This shows that the media dictates what is popular and trendy for us, creating the innate desire in us for the products that they are selling, whether it be through shows, television or the radio.
Another message the makers may be trying to convey to us is, in the present world, privacy is had to get. The lives of many celebrities today, much like Truman’s, are striped to the barest, monitored constantly by tabloids, for us the readers to take a peep at their lives, regardless they like it or not. Like Truman, hidden cameras follow them around, and so similar to Truman, most of the time they are unaware that their actions are caught in the camera, for all to see.
Also, the makers may be trying to communicate that the American Dream is not as perfect as it may be, and that not everyone and everything can be trusted. There is also the possibility that things may break down at any point in time, thus showing that a perfect world is impossible, and that we cannot be sheltered from all the dangers we may possibly face in life. In depicting the breaking down of the staged set of Seahaven, as evident from the falling stage props and the malfunctioning radio, the makers dismiss the American Dream as nothing more than a castle in the air.
Similarly, reality TV and the media create in us the tendency to confuse reality and media-presented fiction. We tend to believe what is written in advertisements and presented to us by celebrities, even if it goes against our common sense. These pervasive messages are abundant in our everyday life, so much so that it becomes part of our reality.
It also goes to show that what we see through the media and what is conceived as ‘reality’, are actually indistinguishable. Many reality shows, such as The Truman Show, try to present to the audience the lives of others, unedited as they claim, but how much of those are actually scripted, and how much freedom are given to the leads of the show? Are we really looking at someone else’s life or are we subconsciously taking in the hidden messages that are intentionally placed by an ‘invisible hand’?
As Truman tries to escape the perfect world of Seahaven, he is faced with many obstacles and difficulties. Similarly, we are ensconced in a world where advertising and media influence is ubiquitous, thus making it difficult for us to discern right from wrong and make choices for ourselves.
Ming Mei, Yuan Ning, Chris Fang, Bertrand Na, Yi Xin
09SO6H
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Truman Show - Christoff
As the producer, Christoff’s role in the programme is to make sure the show goes on as planned and nothing will go wrong in the process. In order to make sure that the show is broadcasted as per normal, he has to think of ways to prevent Truman from finding out that he’s actually living in a studio. However, as time passes, Truman notices too many flaws in his “life”, and tries to escape the set and into the real world. As he attempts to leave Seahaven, Christoff tightly controls any possible ways of leaving, restricting him to the island. For example, when Truman tries to book flights off Seahaven, he is confronted with his fears of his plane being struck down by lightning. Even after he overcomes that fear, he is told that all flights are fully booked, and thus he is unable to leave via a plane. When Truman books a bus ride out of Seahaven, the bus beaks down and once again he is unable to leave the town. Even when Truman takes matters into his own hands and tries to drive out of the town, he is confronted by his fear of water (which was planted into him when Christoff uses a scene where his father tragically “drowns” in a storm and Truman almost died) and fears of rejection by society (Christoff uses people close to Truman to subtly hint that he would be mad to try and leave Seahaven). But even when Truman overcomes these psychological barriers, a series of seemingly “uncontrollable” and “external” factors such as massive traffic jams, forest fires, and even a nuclear accident block his path to freedom.
Furthermore, Christoff wants Truman to be spontaneous and decisive, but he does not want him to make choices. By providing Truman with an environment that is micro-controlled and repetitive, Christoff influence his preferences and predilections and reduce the possible decisions Truman can make so that there is only one favourable outcome at any point of time. Similarly, programme makers in real life can choose to manipulate the characters in a show by subjecting them to specific environments such that they experience certain emotions. This is especially true in reality TV programmes which supposedly documents unscripted scenes and actual events that feature ordinary people instead of professional actors. In this case, Christoff ensures that the show is broadcasted in a way that will appeal to the audience, and there will be enough drama and events to entertain the general public. He directs how the light should be used, when and how the camera should shoot a scene such that the greatest possible effect is achieved. In a way, he makes sure that the audience view Truman’s life from a point of view that he wants them to view. He chooses to influence the choices that characters make in real life TV programmes or write scripts that have characters making certain decisions so that they are commercialised and palatable to the tastes of viewers who will then want to continue watching the show.
On top of this, Christoff is an authoritative figure to the general public, a spokesman for the company, who justifies certain events going on in the show, providing explanations and feeding audience with interesting facts that will arose their curiosity. When talking to the audience on television, he explains how and why he intends to bring Truman’s father back into the show, and what the audience should expect from the show in the future. He also tries to make the audience believe that everything happening in the show is real and not fake. He is the producer, and also the seller. He tells the audience what he wants them to know and what the audience needs to know so that they will keep on watching.
In addition, Christoff is used as a creator figure to give a social commentary about problems created by the modern media which blurs the lines between appearance and reality. Christoff is in charge of creating a utopia for Truman with limited influences from the outside world while programme makers in real life can determine the environment in which a show’s context is set in, ultimately producing a programme that is scripted. Once again, this points to the fact that media influence can actually be a disturbance to our perception of reality when immense amount of media entertainment causes us to be unable to differentiate between media and reality anymore. All these tell us that we are living in a world surrounded my the media, much akin to Truman’s life, and that we have to be media literate and be aware of the fact that we are leaving in a world controlled by the media. However, escaping the media’s control will not be easy, and the media will try and stop us like how Christoff stops Truman’s escape attempts. When we try to break free of the media’s control, we are confronted by fears of rejection by society. After all, people who do not watch TV are considered by the society to be weird.
Therefore, we can say that movies and television (TV) programmes affect our attitudes and beliefs. Depending on what our values are, these programmes can either strengthen or corrode our mindsets over time; and that is the influence the TV has on us. TV is the main source of information; we listen and watch a short news sequence that provides us with the necessary information and keeps us informed during the day. In addition, TV brings about entertainment in our lives, it offers a variety of programmes to keep us occupied while having fun just sitting around, relaxing. However, TV programmes are created by people who want to affect us, to change our mindsets and hopefully “enlighten” us on what they think is right to do, to make us believe in whatever they do and most of the time it works. If the TV does not have an impact on us, then there would not be people citing catch phrases from these TV programmes and that it would not have caused major influences on the fashion industry. That is the power and affluence the TV has on us, whether positive or negative, in influencing our daily habits and lifestyle.
Wenyu, Jasmine, Amanda, Tu Guang
09S06H
Furthermore, Christoff wants Truman to be spontaneous and decisive, but he does not want him to make choices. By providing Truman with an environment that is micro-controlled and repetitive, Christoff influence his preferences and predilections and reduce the possible decisions Truman can make so that there is only one favourable outcome at any point of time. Similarly, programme makers in real life can choose to manipulate the characters in a show by subjecting them to specific environments such that they experience certain emotions. This is especially true in reality TV programmes which supposedly documents unscripted scenes and actual events that feature ordinary people instead of professional actors. In this case, Christoff ensures that the show is broadcasted in a way that will appeal to the audience, and there will be enough drama and events to entertain the general public. He directs how the light should be used, when and how the camera should shoot a scene such that the greatest possible effect is achieved. In a way, he makes sure that the audience view Truman’s life from a point of view that he wants them to view. He chooses to influence the choices that characters make in real life TV programmes or write scripts that have characters making certain decisions so that they are commercialised and palatable to the tastes of viewers who will then want to continue watching the show.
On top of this, Christoff is an authoritative figure to the general public, a spokesman for the company, who justifies certain events going on in the show, providing explanations and feeding audience with interesting facts that will arose their curiosity. When talking to the audience on television, he explains how and why he intends to bring Truman’s father back into the show, and what the audience should expect from the show in the future. He also tries to make the audience believe that everything happening in the show is real and not fake. He is the producer, and also the seller. He tells the audience what he wants them to know and what the audience needs to know so that they will keep on watching.
In addition, Christoff is used as a creator figure to give a social commentary about problems created by the modern media which blurs the lines between appearance and reality. Christoff is in charge of creating a utopia for Truman with limited influences from the outside world while programme makers in real life can determine the environment in which a show’s context is set in, ultimately producing a programme that is scripted. Once again, this points to the fact that media influence can actually be a disturbance to our perception of reality when immense amount of media entertainment causes us to be unable to differentiate between media and reality anymore. All these tell us that we are living in a world surrounded my the media, much akin to Truman’s life, and that we have to be media literate and be aware of the fact that we are leaving in a world controlled by the media. However, escaping the media’s control will not be easy, and the media will try and stop us like how Christoff stops Truman’s escape attempts. When we try to break free of the media’s control, we are confronted by fears of rejection by society. After all, people who do not watch TV are considered by the society to be weird.
Therefore, we can say that movies and television (TV) programmes affect our attitudes and beliefs. Depending on what our values are, these programmes can either strengthen or corrode our mindsets over time; and that is the influence the TV has on us. TV is the main source of information; we listen and watch a short news sequence that provides us with the necessary information and keeps us informed during the day. In addition, TV brings about entertainment in our lives, it offers a variety of programmes to keep us occupied while having fun just sitting around, relaxing. However, TV programmes are created by people who want to affect us, to change our mindsets and hopefully “enlighten” us on what they think is right to do, to make us believe in whatever they do and most of the time it works. If the TV does not have an impact on us, then there would not be people citing catch phrases from these TV programmes and that it would not have caused major influences on the fashion industry. That is the power and affluence the TV has on us, whether positive or negative, in influencing our daily habits and lifestyle.
Wenyu, Jasmine, Amanda, Tu Guang
09S06H
How does the film The Truman Show tell the audience about the influence of the media?
The Truman Show features Truman Burbank as the main character of a reality TV show. Chosen by the producer Christoff from birth, Truman is thrown into some sort of a ‘fishbowl’ world known as Seahaven. From then, everything about his life is part of a script that is plotted by Christoff and his team. With the aid of over five thousand pinhole cameras carefully installed all around Seahaven, Truman’s everyday life is captured and shown to audiences all over the world.
The Truman Show shows us the intrusive nature of media, as well as its overarching power on us. The media nowadays has managed to enter our lives so much, our lives are very much influenced by it. For example, we are bombarded by all sorts of advertisements everywhere we go. Companies such as Nike, Sony, and Apple have managed to persuade us via their advertisements to purchase their products. They try to convince us that their products are the trend, and by using these products, we can follow the trend and be ‘in’. This is in a way similar to the Truman Show, whereby Truman’s life is planned and decided by Christoff to attract the many viewers into watching it. By manipulating various events in Truman’s life, Christoff manages to get the attention of the viewers to continue watching it to find out what will happen to Truman and his life.
In addition, the Truman Show tells us about the ability of the media to exert its control over us without us even knowing. This is particularly shown in the beginning of the Truman Show, when Truman has not yet discovered anything wrong about the fake world that he is living in, and accepts it for what it is. In reality, we are also controlled by media. Many of our opinions are directly or indirectly influenced by news reports that serve to inform us of all that is happening around the globe. While we think that all that is reported to us is real, there are many news reports, especially political ones, which have been edited such that what we know can be entirely different from the actual facts. However, until any notation that that piece of news might be false pops out, we really have no idea what is real and what is false.
Moving on to Seahaven, the enclosed world in which Christoff can manipulate Truman’s life, it is actually similar to the real world that we live in, a world full of illusions created by the media in order to gain control of us. For example, quotes can be taken out of context so as to create an entirely different meaning from what was originally intended. These fictitious information then serve to mislead us and affect some decisions that we will make. In Seahaven, events are manipulated to keep Truman inside the place itself, such as the sudden lack of flights to Fiji, as well as a synchronised traffic jam to prevent him from exiting his town. This shows us the efforts of the media to keep us trapped within it.
The Truman show also tells us the undeniable fact that media works for its own benefit. With the media being so pervasive that we cannot live without it anymore, it now tries to force us to use it even more, in the process earning itself tons of money. This is cleverly shown by the man in the bathtub, who decides to put a television set inside his bathroom so that he does not miss out on the Truman Show, which has no commercial breaks. If not for the show, he probably would not have spent the effort to get another television set so that he can watch television while taking a bath. In our lives, television shows are also televised on timeslots that are readily available for many people, thus encouraging them to tune in regularly for the television shows. This in turn causes rises in viewership ratings, and thus allows the programme makers to earn lots of money.
Also, the Truman Show tells us of the cruelty of the media by their willingness to exploit people for their own benefits. Truman is the victim of such media cruelty in the show, where he is used as a child to attract viewers to the show. Currently, there are also many reality TV shows that exploit people to attract viewers. TV producers create new shows with innovative ideas that can temporarily satisfy the insatiable appetite of the audience. In order to beat each other in attracting viewers, these producers have no qualms forcing participants of the show to do many revolting things, such as Fear Factor which frequently requires the participants to perform dangerous stunts or eat rotten foods. In the Truman Show, Christoff tries everything he can to keep Truman in the set so that the show can go on, to the extent that he contemplates killing off Truman via bad weather to end the show completely. This scene clearly shows us the utter cruelty and ruthlessness of the media.
Yet, the Truman Show also tells us how we can challenge the media and try to overcome the various illusions created. Truman, upon realising something wrong with the world he was living in, tries to escape from it. Although he faces many obstacles, he manages to see through the many minute details that Christoff has placed into his life, and finally manages to walk out of the set that was his life for twenty-odd years. Similarly, we can try to shrug off many of media’s control over us by being media literate, and choose which information we want to take in, and which information as merely fiction masqueraded as facts in an attempt to pull the wool over our eyes.
Done by: Charmaine, Nicole, Xiaodi, Genevieve, Marvin 09S03K
The Truman Show shows us the intrusive nature of media, as well as its overarching power on us. The media nowadays has managed to enter our lives so much, our lives are very much influenced by it. For example, we are bombarded by all sorts of advertisements everywhere we go. Companies such as Nike, Sony, and Apple have managed to persuade us via their advertisements to purchase their products. They try to convince us that their products are the trend, and by using these products, we can follow the trend and be ‘in’. This is in a way similar to the Truman Show, whereby Truman’s life is planned and decided by Christoff to attract the many viewers into watching it. By manipulating various events in Truman’s life, Christoff manages to get the attention of the viewers to continue watching it to find out what will happen to Truman and his life.
In addition, the Truman Show tells us about the ability of the media to exert its control over us without us even knowing. This is particularly shown in the beginning of the Truman Show, when Truman has not yet discovered anything wrong about the fake world that he is living in, and accepts it for what it is. In reality, we are also controlled by media. Many of our opinions are directly or indirectly influenced by news reports that serve to inform us of all that is happening around the globe. While we think that all that is reported to us is real, there are many news reports, especially political ones, which have been edited such that what we know can be entirely different from the actual facts. However, until any notation that that piece of news might be false pops out, we really have no idea what is real and what is false.
Moving on to Seahaven, the enclosed world in which Christoff can manipulate Truman’s life, it is actually similar to the real world that we live in, a world full of illusions created by the media in order to gain control of us. For example, quotes can be taken out of context so as to create an entirely different meaning from what was originally intended. These fictitious information then serve to mislead us and affect some decisions that we will make. In Seahaven, events are manipulated to keep Truman inside the place itself, such as the sudden lack of flights to Fiji, as well as a synchronised traffic jam to prevent him from exiting his town. This shows us the efforts of the media to keep us trapped within it.
The Truman show also tells us the undeniable fact that media works for its own benefit. With the media being so pervasive that we cannot live without it anymore, it now tries to force us to use it even more, in the process earning itself tons of money. This is cleverly shown by the man in the bathtub, who decides to put a television set inside his bathroom so that he does not miss out on the Truman Show, which has no commercial breaks. If not for the show, he probably would not have spent the effort to get another television set so that he can watch television while taking a bath. In our lives, television shows are also televised on timeslots that are readily available for many people, thus encouraging them to tune in regularly for the television shows. This in turn causes rises in viewership ratings, and thus allows the programme makers to earn lots of money.
Also, the Truman Show tells us of the cruelty of the media by their willingness to exploit people for their own benefits. Truman is the victim of such media cruelty in the show, where he is used as a child to attract viewers to the show. Currently, there are also many reality TV shows that exploit people to attract viewers. TV producers create new shows with innovative ideas that can temporarily satisfy the insatiable appetite of the audience. In order to beat each other in attracting viewers, these producers have no qualms forcing participants of the show to do many revolting things, such as Fear Factor which frequently requires the participants to perform dangerous stunts or eat rotten foods. In the Truman Show, Christoff tries everything he can to keep Truman in the set so that the show can go on, to the extent that he contemplates killing off Truman via bad weather to end the show completely. This scene clearly shows us the utter cruelty and ruthlessness of the media.
Yet, the Truman Show also tells us how we can challenge the media and try to overcome the various illusions created. Truman, upon realising something wrong with the world he was living in, tries to escape from it. Although he faces many obstacles, he manages to see through the many minute details that Christoff has placed into his life, and finally manages to walk out of the set that was his life for twenty-odd years. Similarly, we can try to shrug off many of media’s control over us by being media literate, and choose which information we want to take in, and which information as merely fiction masqueraded as facts in an attempt to pull the wool over our eyes.
Done by: Charmaine, Nicole, Xiaodi, Genevieve, Marvin 09S03K
The character of Truman
What kind of person is Truman?
Truman is a character who is very optimistic. He starts each new day with a positive outlook on life. This can be seen as every morning, he gives himself a pep talk and greets his neighbours cheerfully without fail.
He is also very observant. He notices the reactions of people around him in his everyday life. For example, when he saw his father on the street and started chasing after him, he realised that everyone around him acted oblivious to what was happening around them. He also observed that his wife always seemed to be talking to an imaginary audience and promoting products in a very commercialized way.
Truman is also a man with very strong willpower. He was determined to find out the truth despite facing all kinds of obstacles presented by the producers of the show. This can be seen in many ways. Firstly, when he tried to leave Seahaven, he did not give up despite facing a jam. He also overcame his fear of water by sailing out to sea on his own. His willpower to be free from his original life was demonstrated when he risked his own life in the storm.
Lastly, he is also very strong in his beliefs. His beliefs to find his freedom from the media were not shaken despite being confronted by “the voice of God” (Cristoff). The fact that he did not succumb to authority and give up on his beliefs but instead continue onwards shows that he possesses this admirable trait.
Why has he been chosen as the star of a media show? Why doesn’t he know about it?
Truman was chosen as the star of the show for mainly two reasons. Firstly, he was an unwanted baby. Thus, the producers of the show felt that by creating the Truman show, they would be giving him an opportunity to live the life of a normal person. Secondly, he was chosen as he was born into the world at a suitable time – the time when production began.
Truman is unaware that his whole life is being filmed as the whole town is basically a set. Every single event that happens or every object that is found had actually been planned or placed. Even everyone around him, his mother and wife, are all paid actresses. Thus, while he believes that this is leading a normal life, it is in fact a very large-scale production of a show. Lastly, he is unaware of it as there are 5000 mini, high tech cameras placed all around Seahaven to capture every moment of his life.
In what ways is he influenced by the media?
There are several ways in which Truman is influenced by media in the show. Firstly, as the show goes on 24/7 and has no advertisements, the show gets sponsors by allowing companies to use “product placements” around Truman to replace advertisements. As Truman is the star of the show – who does not know he is part of the show- he is being manipulated by the actors of the shows to stand in front of certain advertising boards as well as his friends telling him about any new products they have bought or used. Also, Truman is an unwanted baby, but in the show he is portrayed to have parents and he is made to believe that his “father” has died when he was separated from his father during an accident out in sea.
Think of a specific scene in which this is illustrated well and comment on the effect.
A specific scene that illustrates how Truman is being influenced by the media is when Truman tells his best friend from seven years of age about his encounter, and yet his best pal comes up with a convincing speech, telling Truman that the last thing he would do would be to deceive him. Truman believes him, yet every word of this speech was made up by Christoff. This proves that humans have an innate mindset that “seeing and hearing is believing”. In Truman’s case, he hears what his best friend said to him and he does not question one part of it, which all of us would do the same if we were Truman. Christoff has realized this fact and hence made good use of it to influence Truman to stay in Seahaven by planning for Truman to hear this speech which would assure him that everything is alright in Seahaven.
How does this reflect how the media influences us?
This reflects that the media is so constantly and wholly surrounding us that sometimes it is hard to make the distinction between what is real and what is reel. What is portrayed in the media influences our ideas of reality in most realms of life. We are convinced that the reality “reality” that the media creates is true because we believe in what we see. Hence, we gradually become absorbed into this media reality and we accept the media fabrications as part of our real life and our attitudes get mixed with those that are portrayed in the media. From this, we develop a new attitude to life that is mostly based on what we are shown by the media.
What we have learnt from the show
We accept the way the world is presented to us. Truman has lived in the world of pretense all his life, but he never once doubted the reality of his life until people around him started giving themselves away. We learn that sometimes we simply take in everything around us and believe whatever is presented to us. We ought to sometimes question the reality of life and whether what we perceive is the truth. Truman demonstrates how a person can be lulled into a false sense of security and be fooled most of his life. Indeed, we sometimes try to fit into the surreal world so much that we become part of media. Truman is clearly oblivious to the fact that he is the star of the media show because he was born into the world created for him. This teaches us that we are very influenced by the world. Also, Christoff behaves like God in the show. This makes us wonder whether it is indeed true that the producers of a reality TV programme are playing God to the contestants. They create a world for the stars of the show such that everything is planned out. It is very difficult to be aware of the truth and lies when you’re part of the show. Again, we recognize the overwhelming influence of media on our lives. In this world where everything is planned for us, it is only natural that we abandon ourselves to fate and do not try to lead lives independent of influence from the media.
The Truman Show- Seahaven
Seahaven is a shore town serving as the "film set" of Truman Burbank's life, which the inclusion of his home and workplace. It is an island "paradise" where the weather is always mild and no unpleasantness intrudes. The town has over 5,000 live cameras to capture Truman's every move, with numerous actors paid to play townspeople, friends and relatives of Burbank. The town is watched over by a giant window inside a moon in the dome; also inside the moon is a control room, where the cameras are viewed and managed.
Seahaven is portrait as an idealistic place in The Truman Show, much akin to a "perfect world", where everything is fine and dandy, every building seems newly painted, every sky is clear blue, the sunsets are always beautiful, all the people are wonderfully friendly and everybody is more or less happy. And indeed, in Seahaven, everyone appears to be happy, wealthy and trouble free. The whole of Seahaven is set in the 1950s, which were seen to be a prosperous time in American history. It is a place that embodies "The American Dream”. One specific scene that depicts the American Dream well would be the opening scene where you see the neatly arranged houses white picket fences and neatly mowed lawns on a sunny day, on a straight road. The effect it gives is that of a peaceful utopian era where all things go your way and there are no troubles. Seahaven is a portrait of an ideal classic lifestyle which the average American would hope to live. The effect is that is leaves the audience a false impression that there is actually such a wonderful and perfect place in existence, when Seahaven does not exist at all but is actually created and fictional. However, people are attracted to watch “The Truman Show” and watch Truman live in the world that they all yearn for.
Christoff, the designer and show creator, states that "Seahaven is the way the World should be". Seahaven is also labeled as “The best place on Earth”. Throughout his life, Truman has also indicated a conflicting wish to explore the world, to travel, and to leave Seahaven. Attempts to keep him on the island (and thus unable to discover the truth of his TV-show existence) include the staged drowning death of his father, others' explicit discouragement of his wishes to be an explorer. Also, the general media consistently presents the good points of staying home. Through the show, the makers of the programme attempt to tell the world that this is the best way of life, and that everybody should follow it. This would appeal to the type of people that would "watch" the Truman show. They would look back on that period as "the golden years" and therefore enjoy watching someone who lived there. In short, it is a money-making ruse to keep the show’s ratings high.
Through "The Truman Show", and "Seahaven", the makers of the reality TV programme were trying to communicate to people a type of lifestyle that they should aspire towards. By watching "The Truman Show", audiences would be absorbed by the quality of Truman's life, and simultaneously associate his environment, Seahaven, to such a quality of life ("The American Dream" lifestyle). This would thus make product placement in the reality TV programme an effective marketing technique because the audience, being so engrossed in Truman's life, would want to drink whatever coffee he drinks, wear the kind of clothes he wears, use the same lawnmower he uses, and so on. By making Seahaven such an idealistic place, and giving Truman a rather good life, the makers of the reality TV programme are positioning the reality TV programme as a prime marketing avenue, due to its effectiveness as audiences aspire to live as people do in Seahaven. Examples of product placement in "The Truman Show" would be when Truman's wife, Meryl rather blatantly advertised the coffee she was going to make for Truman, and when she described to him the new all-in-one kitchen tool she had bought.
The makers of the reality TV programme are trying to show that reality TV does not really depict reality because the entire show is scripted. The scriptwriters write the reality TV script so that it appeals to the audience and gives them entertainment, and reality TV does not really reflect reality.
Many aspects of Seahaven are very similar to the real world. What, is different, is the essence of this reality. Is it the real world out there, or is it an artificial construct of the real world out there? In the show, Christoff tells Truman that he is the creator of a show which gives hope, joy and inspiration to millions. He warns Truman that "there is no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you – there are the same lies and deceit, but in the world I created there is nothing to fear." The makers of the reality TV programme are thus trying to portray a ‘perfect’ lifestyle to the audience and encouraging it, as it will bring benefit to everyone. There will not be chaos and everything would be in an orderly fashion. The modern world is like the average movie, where everyone in it is faking their emotions and mindsets, to achieve various purposes and wants and also to get yet another faked response from another. Even places like Disneyland market themselves as an escape from the real world by their "fantasy theme park" emphasis, though it is not free from the conventions of the real world e.g. queuing up and paying money to buy tickets to enter Disneyland is still a must.
Reality TV influences us in this way. We might idolize the characters so much that we wear what the characters wear, following their style and even mimicking the way they move or talk. We may even take on their habits. This is because we tend to aspire towards the lives of characters in movies, and television shows. This is why MTV’s product placement in their music videos has been such an effective marketing tool. Suddenly, a lot more people want to have that Nokia handphone or Samsung MP3 that made an appearance in that music video. For example, we may even be tempted to adopt Truman’s catch-phrase “in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.” We develop the mindset that “since this is reality tv, this is the way we should live.” And to feed this mindset, we might tune in to the programme more, resulting in a vicious cycle. Reality TV could be said to have an even greater impact. Because reality TV features ordinary people who audiences can better associate themselves with, reality TV is all the more inspiring to audiences. In this way, people might find it even more feasible to achieve similar lifestyles to what they see in reality TV shows, and thus be even more influenced by reality TV shows and their content.
Fang Ting, Bryan Cai, Min Jia, Kim, Junling!
09S03K
Seahaven is portrait as an idealistic place in The Truman Show, much akin to a "perfect world", where everything is fine and dandy, every building seems newly painted, every sky is clear blue, the sunsets are always beautiful, all the people are wonderfully friendly and everybody is more or less happy. And indeed, in Seahaven, everyone appears to be happy, wealthy and trouble free. The whole of Seahaven is set in the 1950s, which were seen to be a prosperous time in American history. It is a place that embodies "The American Dream”. One specific scene that depicts the American Dream well would be the opening scene where you see the neatly arranged houses white picket fences and neatly mowed lawns on a sunny day, on a straight road. The effect it gives is that of a peaceful utopian era where all things go your way and there are no troubles. Seahaven is a portrait of an ideal classic lifestyle which the average American would hope to live. The effect is that is leaves the audience a false impression that there is actually such a wonderful and perfect place in existence, when Seahaven does not exist at all but is actually created and fictional. However, people are attracted to watch “The Truman Show” and watch Truman live in the world that they all yearn for.
Christoff, the designer and show creator, states that "Seahaven is the way the World should be". Seahaven is also labeled as “The best place on Earth”. Throughout his life, Truman has also indicated a conflicting wish to explore the world, to travel, and to leave Seahaven. Attempts to keep him on the island (and thus unable to discover the truth of his TV-show existence) include the staged drowning death of his father, others' explicit discouragement of his wishes to be an explorer. Also, the general media consistently presents the good points of staying home. Through the show, the makers of the programme attempt to tell the world that this is the best way of life, and that everybody should follow it. This would appeal to the type of people that would "watch" the Truman show. They would look back on that period as "the golden years" and therefore enjoy watching someone who lived there. In short, it is a money-making ruse to keep the show’s ratings high.
Through "The Truman Show", and "Seahaven", the makers of the reality TV programme were trying to communicate to people a type of lifestyle that they should aspire towards. By watching "The Truman Show", audiences would be absorbed by the quality of Truman's life, and simultaneously associate his environment, Seahaven, to such a quality of life ("The American Dream" lifestyle). This would thus make product placement in the reality TV programme an effective marketing technique because the audience, being so engrossed in Truman's life, would want to drink whatever coffee he drinks, wear the kind of clothes he wears, use the same lawnmower he uses, and so on. By making Seahaven such an idealistic place, and giving Truman a rather good life, the makers of the reality TV programme are positioning the reality TV programme as a prime marketing avenue, due to its effectiveness as audiences aspire to live as people do in Seahaven. Examples of product placement in "The Truman Show" would be when Truman's wife, Meryl rather blatantly advertised the coffee she was going to make for Truman, and when she described to him the new all-in-one kitchen tool she had bought.
The makers of the reality TV programme are trying to show that reality TV does not really depict reality because the entire show is scripted. The scriptwriters write the reality TV script so that it appeals to the audience and gives them entertainment, and reality TV does not really reflect reality.
Many aspects of Seahaven are very similar to the real world. What, is different, is the essence of this reality. Is it the real world out there, or is it an artificial construct of the real world out there? In the show, Christoff tells Truman that he is the creator of a show which gives hope, joy and inspiration to millions. He warns Truman that "there is no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you – there are the same lies and deceit, but in the world I created there is nothing to fear." The makers of the reality TV programme are thus trying to portray a ‘perfect’ lifestyle to the audience and encouraging it, as it will bring benefit to everyone. There will not be chaos and everything would be in an orderly fashion. The modern world is like the average movie, where everyone in it is faking their emotions and mindsets, to achieve various purposes and wants and also to get yet another faked response from another. Even places like Disneyland market themselves as an escape from the real world by their "fantasy theme park" emphasis, though it is not free from the conventions of the real world e.g. queuing up and paying money to buy tickets to enter Disneyland is still a must.
Reality TV influences us in this way. We might idolize the characters so much that we wear what the characters wear, following their style and even mimicking the way they move or talk. We may even take on their habits. This is because we tend to aspire towards the lives of characters in movies, and television shows. This is why MTV’s product placement in their music videos has been such an effective marketing tool. Suddenly, a lot more people want to have that Nokia handphone or Samsung MP3 that made an appearance in that music video. For example, we may even be tempted to adopt Truman’s catch-phrase “in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.” We develop the mindset that “since this is reality tv, this is the way we should live.” And to feed this mindset, we might tune in to the programme more, resulting in a vicious cycle. Reality TV could be said to have an even greater impact. Because reality TV features ordinary people who audiences can better associate themselves with, reality TV is all the more inspiring to audiences. In this way, people might find it even more feasible to achieve similar lifestyles to what they see in reality TV shows, and thus be even more influenced by reality TV shows and their content.
Fang Ting, Bryan Cai, Min Jia, Kim, Junling!
09S03K
Truman Show - Conclusion
As much as we would hate to admit, the media is indispensable. As a result of globalisation, the lives of many from different backgrounds are inextricably connected. There is growing need for us to understand our neighbours and to learn to cooperate with them. Even in the global market, the onus is suddenly on the consumers to do their research and find out the best deals. The World Wide Web has become a necessity, and comparatively slow and inconvenient old school methods of gaining knowledge in any field are considered obsolete. Under such conditions, to isolate oneself from the media is a Herculean task because what it can offer is simply irresistible.
Having established the fact that the media is essential, it is not difficult to understand how it impacts our lives and sways our decisions. Being very obliging and compliant, the media gives us exactly what we ask for – more of itself. However, the surge in content that the media fronts does not necessarily translate to more fruitful information for viewers. It simply means that the audience now has to be equipped with the skills to sieve out information that relevant to us. After this process of beefing up, we can no longer be sure if what the media tries to convey to us is factual. In fact even the print press may have alternative agendas and can be as unrelenting as the broadcast media. Take for example the Seahaven’s newspaper in “The Truman Show”. In one scene, the front page news proclaimed that Seahaven was the “Best Place on Earth”. Of course we, as viewers, know that the entire show is a hoax, but it is not difficult to imagine that there may be similar happenings in the real world, on a much smaller scale. Can the press lie to us? The answer is affirmative. In countries run by dictatorships, the use of press for propaganda is prevalent. The credibility of official bodies is not absolute, much less that of profit driven organisations. Hence, it is vital that we learn to be discerning of the media’s message and break through intellectual boundaries and conventional wisdom.
Moreover, its pervasiveness makes the media evermore influential. Due to our constant and excessive exposure, we find that the media is able manipulate our perspectives. Aside for educational purposes, we also subscribe to the media for entertainment purposes. While we engage in mind numbing activities, such as watching drama serials, we may unwittingly be influenced to think and feel a certain way. Because we are bombarded by commercials, from catchy jingles to posters at the bus stops, we subconsciously believe the empty promises that producers make drum into our heads even before we have time to truly understand them. Producers promote consumer goods through advertisements interspersed between television programmes. Especially when we engage in mind numbing activities, such as watching soap operas, we are caught off guard and unwittingly make ourselves more susceptible to being over receptive to the messages conveyed to us through commercials. A scene from “The Truman Show” aptly illustrates this point. The producer of the movie inserts music and zooms in on the actors’ countenances to dramatise a touching moment when Truman Burbank reunites with his father. The scene is so well done that even the operating crew, elated over their success, embrace and viewers all over the world start to tear. This scene points out in a sinister way that the film producers can so easily evoke any emotions of film-illiterate global audience.
The media’s influence is so extensive, it may change our lifestyle and behaviour altogether. If we allow it, the media is actually empowered to shape the public preference and set new trends which will inevitably be followed by the population. The main reason for this is that the changes effected soon quickly become common and the norm. It begins to seem as if herd mentality stifles any uniqueness or unconventional ideas.
The film “The Truman Show” is so effective because it exaggerates the exact effect of the media on an individual using dark humour. There is an inherent inclination for us to believe what we see and to accept truth on the peripheral level. Therefore, the exaggerated dramatization and portrayal of media influence, as in this movie, is required to drill the message into our heads. Contrary to this, ordinary efforts will not spark any realization in our minds, which are shaped by and under the control of the media. This can be observed from the fact that it took Burbank full thirty years of his life to discover loopholes in the plot. Furthermore, his mind had been altered and wrought by the media all these years and it required immense determination on his part to worm his way out of his comfort zone into the real world. The truth hurts but his indomitable search for it gave him meaning in life.
Similarly, it takes a great deal of time and effort to discover the wayward impact media has on us. Though the level of influence of the media on us is so high, it is not easily visible. Even if we are aware of it, we may not have the courage to accept that our sources of truth and inspiration may be wrong, or the willpower to seek rectification. The show is a convincing appeal to us to employ our higher faculties in our dealings with the media. As the first of its kind, the film is a reflection of modern day society and portrays the media in a cynical way which, to a certain extent, may be true. In this seemingly frivolous and far fetched movie, the message behind the show is a warning not to be ignored. It poses an extremely crucial question. Do we govern the media or does the media govern us? The answer is hidden within us and this movie makes us dig deep to face the reality and take action to fix it before it gets too late.
Done By: Elaine, Abs, Thomas and Nicholas - 09S06H
Having established the fact that the media is essential, it is not difficult to understand how it impacts our lives and sways our decisions. Being very obliging and compliant, the media gives us exactly what we ask for – more of itself. However, the surge in content that the media fronts does not necessarily translate to more fruitful information for viewers. It simply means that the audience now has to be equipped with the skills to sieve out information that relevant to us. After this process of beefing up, we can no longer be sure if what the media tries to convey to us is factual. In fact even the print press may have alternative agendas and can be as unrelenting as the broadcast media. Take for example the Seahaven’s newspaper in “The Truman Show”. In one scene, the front page news proclaimed that Seahaven was the “Best Place on Earth”. Of course we, as viewers, know that the entire show is a hoax, but it is not difficult to imagine that there may be similar happenings in the real world, on a much smaller scale. Can the press lie to us? The answer is affirmative. In countries run by dictatorships, the use of press for propaganda is prevalent. The credibility of official bodies is not absolute, much less that of profit driven organisations. Hence, it is vital that we learn to be discerning of the media’s message and break through intellectual boundaries and conventional wisdom.
Moreover, its pervasiveness makes the media evermore influential. Due to our constant and excessive exposure, we find that the media is able manipulate our perspectives. Aside for educational purposes, we also subscribe to the media for entertainment purposes. While we engage in mind numbing activities, such as watching drama serials, we may unwittingly be influenced to think and feel a certain way. Because we are bombarded by commercials, from catchy jingles to posters at the bus stops, we subconsciously believe the empty promises that producers make drum into our heads even before we have time to truly understand them. Producers promote consumer goods through advertisements interspersed between television programmes. Especially when we engage in mind numbing activities, such as watching soap operas, we are caught off guard and unwittingly make ourselves more susceptible to being over receptive to the messages conveyed to us through commercials. A scene from “The Truman Show” aptly illustrates this point. The producer of the movie inserts music and zooms in on the actors’ countenances to dramatise a touching moment when Truman Burbank reunites with his father. The scene is so well done that even the operating crew, elated over their success, embrace and viewers all over the world start to tear. This scene points out in a sinister way that the film producers can so easily evoke any emotions of film-illiterate global audience.
The media’s influence is so extensive, it may change our lifestyle and behaviour altogether. If we allow it, the media is actually empowered to shape the public preference and set new trends which will inevitably be followed by the population. The main reason for this is that the changes effected soon quickly become common and the norm. It begins to seem as if herd mentality stifles any uniqueness or unconventional ideas.
The film “The Truman Show” is so effective because it exaggerates the exact effect of the media on an individual using dark humour. There is an inherent inclination for us to believe what we see and to accept truth on the peripheral level. Therefore, the exaggerated dramatization and portrayal of media influence, as in this movie, is required to drill the message into our heads. Contrary to this, ordinary efforts will not spark any realization in our minds, which are shaped by and under the control of the media. This can be observed from the fact that it took Burbank full thirty years of his life to discover loopholes in the plot. Furthermore, his mind had been altered and wrought by the media all these years and it required immense determination on his part to worm his way out of his comfort zone into the real world. The truth hurts but his indomitable search for it gave him meaning in life.
Similarly, it takes a great deal of time and effort to discover the wayward impact media has on us. Though the level of influence of the media on us is so high, it is not easily visible. Even if we are aware of it, we may not have the courage to accept that our sources of truth and inspiration may be wrong, or the willpower to seek rectification. The show is a convincing appeal to us to employ our higher faculties in our dealings with the media. As the first of its kind, the film is a reflection of modern day society and portrays the media in a cynical way which, to a certain extent, may be true. In this seemingly frivolous and far fetched movie, the message behind the show is a warning not to be ignored. It poses an extremely crucial question. Do we govern the media or does the media govern us? The answer is hidden within us and this movie makes us dig deep to face the reality and take action to fix it before it gets too late.
Done By: Elaine, Abs, Thomas and Nicholas - 09S06H
The Truman Show
How does the film The Truman Show tell the audience about the influence of the media?
The Truman Show tells us that the media has infiltrated our lives, influencing our aspirations, and the way we perceive both ourselves and others. Our group will focus on how the character in the film, Christoff, highlights the influence of the media.
Christoff is the producer, creator and director of the Truman Show. He created The Truman Show, which is broadcasted 24 hours every day. The show features the life of Truman Burbank – his life experiences and emotions that he goes through are broadcasted worldwide. However, Truman is unaware of the fact that his every move and action is recorded and aired to millions.
Even though Truman makes decisions in his life, his choices are often greatly influenced by what Christoff has designed for him. Through the product placements in the show, both Truman and the audience are subconsciously affected in their choices of products. For example, a particular brand of soft drink or baked beans may be featured in the show, and this may be a form of advertisement for the product. Certainly, the media has infiltrated many aspects of our lives, and affected the decisions we make.
Christoff is a manipulative character, and oversees every single aspect of the film set and Truman’s life. He wields control and dictates the events that take place in Truman’s life. This includes the systematically planned death of Truman’s father. Christoff provides a setting for Truman to behave in a desired way, such that the audience will be interested to continue tuning in to the show. For example, when the truth that Truman had been filmed all these while was revealed to him, Christoff undermines Truman’s feelings by cueing for melancholic music to be played by the production team. He creates an artificial setting for the audience to feel for him. Similarly, the media manipulates the target audience’s feelings by putting up a specific situation or scenario that aims at certain emotions. For example, slimming advertisements target at consumers’ guilt and desire to appear physically attractive, through visual appeal of models with a desired body figure.
Furthermore, Christoff manipulates Truman by influencing his beliefs and values. He controls various aspects of his life (such as his emotions and his perception of reality), impeding him from reaching his goal. Initially, Truman wants to become an explorer and Christoff prevents that by instilling in him the fear of water. In addition, he hindered him from being with the girl whom he really loves. Christoff manipulates Truman in such ways, creating a plot that ensures viewership. The final aim of Christoff is to gain fame and success for himself. Similarly, programme makers in real life decide the plot of television shows, and what the audience watches. They choose to bring across certain messages to the audience, manipulating and toying with the audience’s emotions to increase viewership and earn profits. Certain companies influence our perception of products by packaging them as cool and hip things to possess, so as to boost sales. As a result, consumers are often controlled unknowingly in their decisions to buy a particular product due to the way the media portrays it.
For example, after his wife left with his mother, Truman watched a TV show that emphasises on how good home is and why we should not venture far from home. All these subtle hints deter Truman from wanting to explore the world around him and discover he is just in a large set. This tells the audience that the ideas propagated in TV shows do have an effect on how we think. Yes this does happen in real life, especially in commercials and advertisements that try to market their products to us. Successful marketing will influence us into thinking that their product is as desirable as they say it is. As for drama serials, they can influence us into thinking that a certain set of values are correct, for example, the male lead in the show hits the villain and wins the admiration of the female lead. This may influence the audience to an extent to think that violence is a good way to resolve problems and that it is heroic to do so.
Christoff is also a callous character. He is cold and hard, and is rather nonchalant to Truman’s feelings. Even as Truman is facing an emotional breakdown after learning about the truth, and trying to escape from his engineered life, Christoff resorts to various underhand means and methods to keep him within the film set. When Truman was sailing on the artificial sea in the film set, hoping to escape, Christoff controls the weather, ordering for a stormy weather to prevent Truman from leaving. Despite Truman’s struggle and fear of water, Christoff relentlessly asks for increasingly stormy water to stop his escape, threatening Truman’s life in the process. In real life, the media can possible be as callous and cruel. For example, in reality show Big Brother Australia, a participant whose father had passed away was uninformed. The producers had decided not to inform her about her father’s death as they did not want to disrupt the flow of the reality show.
However, it is not right to blame Christoff totally. The reason why Christoff was able to successfully create the Truman Show is because people are interested in it as it creates a world which is not possible in the real world. The audience gives Christoff silent support by watching the show every day and encourages him to continue with the show. It can be said that Christoff is only giving the people what they want by creating Seahaven. It is a place created by Christoff to attract the interest of the audience. The audience watches the show partly because of Truman and partly because they can imagine living in this ideal little town and continue believing that the American dream exists. Therefore one of the main reasons why Truman has been deceived for so many years is the audience’s desire for a true reality show. The audience is aware of Truman’s situation, yet most of them do nothing to help him get out of the show.
Television dramas can also greatly influence our values and mindsets. Drama serials may lead us into thinking that real life is the way as it is portrayed in the programmes. For example, casual sex and violence on television shows may influence us into believing such acts are acceptable. Constant messages and ideas sent out by TV shows may affect us subconsciously and become ingrained in us eventually. As Christoff mentioned in the film, people often accept reality as it is presented to them. Likewise, without even being aware of it, people often accept what television shows present to them, allowing the producers to manipulate our lives with the embedded values and messages.
As such, The Truman Show is a wake up call for many as it reminds us of the influences of the media and how it greatly affects our values, perceptions and choices in life. It is essential for all to develop greater awareness of the power of the media, and the ways which we can minimise this influence on us so as to be truly in charge of our own lives. In addition, it is also the producers’ part to exercise social responsibility in the entertainment sector.
Cheong Li Min, Rachel Chin, Lim Shi Min, Sun Yi Yue, Tao Tao
09S03K
The Truman Show tells us that the media has infiltrated our lives, influencing our aspirations, and the way we perceive both ourselves and others. Our group will focus on how the character in the film, Christoff, highlights the influence of the media.
Christoff is the producer, creator and director of the Truman Show. He created The Truman Show, which is broadcasted 24 hours every day. The show features the life of Truman Burbank – his life experiences and emotions that he goes through are broadcasted worldwide. However, Truman is unaware of the fact that his every move and action is recorded and aired to millions.
Even though Truman makes decisions in his life, his choices are often greatly influenced by what Christoff has designed for him. Through the product placements in the show, both Truman and the audience are subconsciously affected in their choices of products. For example, a particular brand of soft drink or baked beans may be featured in the show, and this may be a form of advertisement for the product. Certainly, the media has infiltrated many aspects of our lives, and affected the decisions we make.
Christoff is a manipulative character, and oversees every single aspect of the film set and Truman’s life. He wields control and dictates the events that take place in Truman’s life. This includes the systematically planned death of Truman’s father. Christoff provides a setting for Truman to behave in a desired way, such that the audience will be interested to continue tuning in to the show. For example, when the truth that Truman had been filmed all these while was revealed to him, Christoff undermines Truman’s feelings by cueing for melancholic music to be played by the production team. He creates an artificial setting for the audience to feel for him. Similarly, the media manipulates the target audience’s feelings by putting up a specific situation or scenario that aims at certain emotions. For example, slimming advertisements target at consumers’ guilt and desire to appear physically attractive, through visual appeal of models with a desired body figure.
Furthermore, Christoff manipulates Truman by influencing his beliefs and values. He controls various aspects of his life (such as his emotions and his perception of reality), impeding him from reaching his goal. Initially, Truman wants to become an explorer and Christoff prevents that by instilling in him the fear of water. In addition, he hindered him from being with the girl whom he really loves. Christoff manipulates Truman in such ways, creating a plot that ensures viewership. The final aim of Christoff is to gain fame and success for himself. Similarly, programme makers in real life decide the plot of television shows, and what the audience watches. They choose to bring across certain messages to the audience, manipulating and toying with the audience’s emotions to increase viewership and earn profits. Certain companies influence our perception of products by packaging them as cool and hip things to possess, so as to boost sales. As a result, consumers are often controlled unknowingly in their decisions to buy a particular product due to the way the media portrays it.
For example, after his wife left with his mother, Truman watched a TV show that emphasises on how good home is and why we should not venture far from home. All these subtle hints deter Truman from wanting to explore the world around him and discover he is just in a large set. This tells the audience that the ideas propagated in TV shows do have an effect on how we think. Yes this does happen in real life, especially in commercials and advertisements that try to market their products to us. Successful marketing will influence us into thinking that their product is as desirable as they say it is. As for drama serials, they can influence us into thinking that a certain set of values are correct, for example, the male lead in the show hits the villain and wins the admiration of the female lead. This may influence the audience to an extent to think that violence is a good way to resolve problems and that it is heroic to do so.
Christoff is also a callous character. He is cold and hard, and is rather nonchalant to Truman’s feelings. Even as Truman is facing an emotional breakdown after learning about the truth, and trying to escape from his engineered life, Christoff resorts to various underhand means and methods to keep him within the film set. When Truman was sailing on the artificial sea in the film set, hoping to escape, Christoff controls the weather, ordering for a stormy weather to prevent Truman from leaving. Despite Truman’s struggle and fear of water, Christoff relentlessly asks for increasingly stormy water to stop his escape, threatening Truman’s life in the process. In real life, the media can possible be as callous and cruel. For example, in reality show Big Brother Australia, a participant whose father had passed away was uninformed. The producers had decided not to inform her about her father’s death as they did not want to disrupt the flow of the reality show.
However, it is not right to blame Christoff totally. The reason why Christoff was able to successfully create the Truman Show is because people are interested in it as it creates a world which is not possible in the real world. The audience gives Christoff silent support by watching the show every day and encourages him to continue with the show. It can be said that Christoff is only giving the people what they want by creating Seahaven. It is a place created by Christoff to attract the interest of the audience. The audience watches the show partly because of Truman and partly because they can imagine living in this ideal little town and continue believing that the American dream exists. Therefore one of the main reasons why Truman has been deceived for so many years is the audience’s desire for a true reality show. The audience is aware of Truman’s situation, yet most of them do nothing to help him get out of the show.
Television dramas can also greatly influence our values and mindsets. Drama serials may lead us into thinking that real life is the way as it is portrayed in the programmes. For example, casual sex and violence on television shows may influence us into believing such acts are acceptable. Constant messages and ideas sent out by TV shows may affect us subconsciously and become ingrained in us eventually. As Christoff mentioned in the film, people often accept reality as it is presented to them. Likewise, without even being aware of it, people often accept what television shows present to them, allowing the producers to manipulate our lives with the embedded values and messages.
As such, The Truman Show is a wake up call for many as it reminds us of the influences of the media and how it greatly affects our values, perceptions and choices in life. It is essential for all to develop greater awareness of the power of the media, and the ways which we can minimise this influence on us so as to be truly in charge of our own lives. In addition, it is also the producers’ part to exercise social responsibility in the entertainment sector.
Cheong Li Min, Rachel Chin, Lim Shi Min, Sun Yi Yue, Tao Tao
09S03K
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